Tales of Neria-Prophecy of Spirits
by waterlily250
Summary: *DISCONTINUED* *DISCLAIMER* THIS IS NOT ACTUALLY A FANFICTION. IT IS AN ORIGINAL BOOK I HAVE WRITTEN MYSELF. Please stay with me though. Wisteria is a regular 14-year-old girl living in New York City...or so it seems. She is whisked of to Neria, an island with a school for mages like her. Little does she know, prophecies and betrayal lay in her path...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"Wisteria Myers!" Mom called from down the stairs. I groaned and glanced at my alarm clock, which was flashing the time 6:30 at me. This was way too early, especially on a Saturday!

"This is only the fourth time I've called you! Drag your butt out of bed." Mom continued, her voice cracking a little bit. "You know what today is."

"Coming!" I yelled back. You know what today is. The words flashed through my mind. Of course I knew what today was. Today was the day I was to visit my dad, and went to go live with him, and go to school where he did.

One day... One day you'll live here. With me. And find yourself." My dad's words were still as clear as they were the day he said them to me. My dad is a mage, who lives on the secret island of Neria, located just under Australia. I threw my pillow and picture of Mom into my suitcase and stumbled down the stairs, already dressed in a light green t-shirt and dark blue jeans.

As I said a teary goodbye to my mother, I waited outside. My father had said that I didn't need to take a plane, and that my "ride" to Neria would come to me. I waited outside until I saw a very dark gray shape flying towards me. I gasped as I realized what it was.

My dad had sent a Pegasus to take me across the ocean from New York City to a remote Australian island. The winged horse landed in front of my house, dew sparkling on its feathered wings, and bowed its head. I climbed on it's back, my suitcase hitting my side.

"Ow," I mumbled while the pegasus spread its mighty wings and lifted into the air. Wind whipped my light brown hair into my face as I saw my home disappear behind me in a blur in the blacks, yellows, reds and blues of bustling cars and busy streets. I patted the horse's mane and it looked at me with it's brilliant golden eyes.

"What's your name?" I asked the pegasus softly, whispering in it's ear. I knew it couldn't answer, and I didn't even know what gender it was, so I figured I would have to ask my dad when I got to Neria.

The horse suddenly dipped, soaring towards the ground at about sixty miles per hour. I panicked. "What are you doing?!" I screeched. The pegasus glanced at me like, Bro, chill. It suddenly leveled at a lower altitude then we were before. Just across the bit of blue ocean we had yet to cross, I saw a little island sitting peacefully off the coast of Australia. We flew lower and lower until the pegasus landed noiselessly on the soft grass of Neria.

"Wisteria!" My dad appeared, like, literally materialized right in front of me, like the shimmering image in a lake. My dad was a air elemental and he was skilled in this ability. "I missed you," Dad said, "and I'm so excited you are going to live here with me."

"Me too, I can't wait to start school!" I faked a smile to hide how sad I was about leaving New York.

"Speaking of school, you know it starts next week, right? Well, you will have a test to find what element you are, and then-"

"But won't I be an air elemental? Like you?" I asked.

"Well, probably, but sometimes mage's kids are different from their parents. Well, it's about sixteen hours ahead here in Neria then it is in New York, so it's about 8:00 here right now. Let's go into the house. We can talk more tomorrow."

"Okay, dad. So...what does your house look like? I forget," I asked, trying to start a conversation.

Dad smiled. "Well, it's mainly made of hardened stained clay from the ocean, with coral accents and a metal roof. Everything is enchanted to survive the tropical storms."

"Coral accents?" I tilted my head, not remembering seeing coral last time I had visited with my mom, twelve years ago.

"Yes, coral accents. Red branches around the doors and windows...you'll see." Dad walked faster so I had to jog to keep up with him. Suddenly he jumped up and flew- as I stared at him in awe, hoping maybe I could do that someday.

"Dad," I panted from running after him,

"Are we there yet?"

"Yes, Wisty. You're home."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Wisteria, it's time to get up. You have a big day today!" My dad's voice rang out from the kitchen into my room. Today was the day I started at my new school, which apparently was called scholae elementorum, which means 'school of elements' in Latin. Why Latin? I don't know.

As I quickly got dressed in a lavender blouse with gray leggings, my alarm clock decided it was a good time to go off. It beeped louder and louder until I ran over, half-tripped over a pair of flats, and hit the off button. I put on the flats and hurried to the kitchen.

"Good morning! I made you these," Dad put a plate of fluffy Belgium waffles with maple syrup and whipped cream on the table in front of where I sat down.

"You made these?" I asked. "For real or with magic?"

"For real, actual waffles taste better than wind magic ones. Imagine eating air. That's pretty much what they would taste like." He chuckled a bit then sat down next to me. "Eat up, we have to go soon."

"Okay." I quickly ate the delicious waffles and hurried to grab the lunch I had packed the night before.

"Wisty, you don't need that. They serve you there, every meal, no charge."

"Oh. Cool!" I set it down on the counter and rushed out the door with my father.

• • •

"Good luck," Dad said, hugging me at the entrance of the school. He walked away, waving one last time, and flew off.

"Bye!" I was excited to go to the scholae elementorum, but first I had to take a test. What the test was, I had no idea, but hopefully they don't pick you up and throw you at something and whatever you land in or on first is your element, because that would suck. Then again, that didn't really make sense.

"Um, hi!" I heard a cheerful, melodic voice behind me. I turned around.

"Hi," I said back. The girl had long, blonde, very wavy hair. Her eyes were sparkling blue pools, and she had another girl with her.

"I'm Diamond. I live here in Neria, well, obviously you do too, but sometimes people come from all over to go to this school. Oh, and this is Skye." She gestured to the girl next to her, who had dark brown hair with blue tips and pretty hazel eyes.

"I'm from L.A. How about you?" She asked, holding out her hand so I could shake it.

"I'm Wisteria. From New York City." I shook both of their hands and we headed into the school together, all three of us. We stopped in a big, dim room filled with others. It felt good to make friends, or at least meet people, because the part I was most scared about was not the test. It was fitting in at this school for magical people.

"I'm so excited! I wonder what element I'm going to be!" Diamond was practically bursting with anticipation, and I had to admit I was excited too, but also nervous.

"Me too, but I'm nervous. What if... What if I fail?" Skye fretted.

"Don't worry! You can't fail this test!" Diamond reassured her. Skye smiled at Diamond's bouncy optimism and looked at me.

"What element do you think you're going to be?" She asked. "I think I'm probably going to be...um... Well, to be honest, I don't know! Maybe fire, like my mom?"

"I think I'll be air, like my dad," I responded.

"Well, I think I'm either going to be ice or air, and I don't know why. My aunt is fire and my uncle is darkness, but I don't really feel like I'm either of those. In fact, I'll probably be the opposite of one of them!" Diamond laughed.

"Would you guys quiet down a bit? I mean really," a girl with glossy black hair and startling red eyes turned around, "why is everyone so loud around here?" She rolled her eyes.

"Well, sorry if we aren't as deadpan and boring as you, but we're excited," Skye retorted.

"Touchy! Well, my name is... Well, you probably know who I am." When all she got was blank looks she continued, "My name is Luna. I'm the second princess of Neria, my older sister is Selena, and she always bosses me around."

"Oh my gosh! Hi, Luna! I've seen you and your family on the news a lot!" Diamond exclaimed. "This is Wisteria, and this is Skye. They're from across the ocean, in America."

"Pleasure." Luna looked almost bored. "Well, aren't you going to ask me what element I think I'm going to be?"

"Um, okay, Luna," I responded,"what element do you think you're going to be?"

"Darkness." Luna's red eyes sparked. "Like my parents and Selena. It runs in our family."

"Cool!" Diamond beamed.

"If I could have everyone's attention," a loud voice boomed over everyone, making all if us go silent,"my name is Headmaster Hart. The test will start now." The room got even darker and everyone seemed to disappear, and I was all alone, separated from my new friends. Well, my new friends and Luna. I wasn't sure what to think of her yet.

"Hello? Anyone?" I called, but all I heard was my own voice echoing back at me and the rush of...water? I saw a faint light coming from up ahead, and I ran toward it, desperate to find someone. My heart was racing, and I could almost feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins. Suddenly I entered another room.

Seven pedestals formed a circle, in which I was standing in the middle of. I walked towards the other entrance, because the one I came from disappeared, and there was just wall. I realized that in each pedestal was a bowl, filled with each element.

BOOM!

A huge monster came from the other entrance, it's three eyes staring at me hungrily, like it was imagining me roasted on a silver platter with an apple in my mouth. It came at me, the walls shaking with each gigantic step.

"Help!" I screamed, hoping someone could hear me. And bumped into the pedestal with the air bowl. It dawned on me that whatever element we used to take down this beast would be the one we controlled. I thrust my hands out, expecting air to come rushing out and hitting the monster. Instead, two pedestals down, water exploded from a bowl with ornate waves etched in it and hit the monster square in the chest. He disintegrated on the spot.

The walls, pedestal bowls, and monster ash melted away and I was standing in the room where Headmaster Hart had told us the test had begun, with Skye, Diamond and Luna standing by me like nothing ever happened. Each of us had puzzled looks on our faces and looked a bit worn out.

"So, how did everyone do?" Skye asked, taking a deep breath.

"Water," was all I could say at the moment. After a bit I found my voice. "A monster with three eyes came and water hit him in the chest and he... I guess he died."

"Light." Diamond said. "That was kinda scary!" She added.

"Earth." Skye looked satisfied with her result. "Not exactly what I was expecting though."

"I got darkness, just like I said I would. I was right." Luna smiled and then the Headmaster spoke up again.

"Listen for your dorm mates, you'll be spending a lot of time together this year." Headmaster Hart announced the list, and I didn't know any of the people until it came to "Skye James and Luna Amora in the school dorm section of Spirit, Room 4B, and Wisteria Myers and Diamond Hopewell also in Spirit in room 4C." The rest I couldn't hear over Diamond's excited squeals and hugs while I laughed.

"Cool, neighbors!" Luna grinned at us and she and Skye talked to each other as if they were best friends.

"Okay, roommate," I said to Diamond, "let's go. I have a feeling we have a long day tomorrow."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"And as soon as you have completed this task, we can move on to more fun and complicated lessons." Mrs. Jesse told the class.

"I don't understand, can you repeat that?" I asked, because I had zoned out and wasn't listening.

Mrs. Jesse took a deep breath and told the whole History of Water class the directions of the project again. "Each of you need to choose a partner and pick a famous water mage to do a Magic Projection, or MP, on. On Friday of next week, you will be presenting them. You will be graded on accuracy of facts and projection quality."

"Okay, thank you." I stood up and walked to the other side of the room where one of my friends from this class, Sierra was waving me over.

"Which one should we pick?" She asked me, like I had a clue.

"I don't know, I'm not from here, remember?" I told her.

"Okay, well, I was thinking maybe we could do Hera Dylan," Sierra suggested. "She was the one who created the first hurricane, and her life story is pretty cool."l

I raised my hand. "Mrs. Jesse, we're planning on doing Hera Dylan. Is someone else doing her already?"

"No, Wisteria. Excellent choice." Mrs. Jesse clapped her hands to get the rest of the class's attention. "Sierra and Wisteria have chosen Hera Dylan, now you must choose someone else." A couple of groans could be heard from other people, but they obviously had another idea because they didn't seem too hostile about it.

"Um, Sierra," I asked, "What's an MP?"

"A magical projection. We have to conjure an image of our subject, in this case Hera Dylan, and talk about her while we do a presentation." Sierra explained.

"That sounds hard!" I protested.

"It is, that's why she's grading us on the projection quality."

"Not fair. Well, how do we research her?" I asked, a bit pouty.

"Well, the library. But it's really big, and-"

"There's a big library here?! Show me!" I love books and reading so I begged my friend to take me there. "Mrs. Jesse? Can we go to the library, please?"

"Okay, but be back at twelve for lunch." Mrs. Jesse smiled.

"Thanks, bye!" I grabbed Sierra and rushed out the door. "Wait," I stopped, "Where is the library?"

"At the end of this hallway," Sierra's eyes were sparkling with amusement and I started running down the hallway again and came to a stop in front of large wooden double doors. I opened them and stepped in.

"Whoa... It's huge..." Was all I could say as I tried to soak in the size if the library. It was about the size of a my mom's house in New York, complete with two floors. Sierra pulled me past the doorway to talk to the librarian, Mr. Jennings.

"Could you tell us where the books about Hera Dylan are?" Sierra asked sweetly.

"For Mrs. Jesse's project? Of course." He flicked his wrist and a few books came sailing towards them on a wisp of silvery magic, so pale it was almost transparent. "Here you go."

"Thanks!" I took then and sat at a table with Sierra. We each pulled out a book and started to take notes on Hera Dylan, who was the daughter of two non-magic people. She was teased in school because of this and had to drop out in her sixth year because she didn't have enough money. She moved back to New Orleans, where she learned how to control the sea, but eventually she got too powerful, caused the first hurricane and had to move back to Neria.

Briiiiiing!

"That's the bell, it's almost noon. We should be going." Sierra checked out a couple of books and left the library, with me following her to the Café, where they were serving steak and baked potatoes with butter and gravy with a soda machine for drinks.

"Isn't this a little excessive for lunch?" I asked Luna, who I stood behind in the lunch line.

She smiled a bit. "Well, Neria is a rich island with a strong government. I guess we can afford this kind of stuff." We got our lunches and drinks- Cherry Coke for me and Pepsi for Luna- and sat down at a table with Diamond and Skye. A couple of boys were sitting there too.

"I hope you don't mind. My brother, Alex, and his friend, Caleb, wanted to sit with us." Diamond smiled.

"That's fine. How old are they?" I asked, waving to them.

"Fifteen, so a year older than us." Diamond answered. "Skye's okay with it too."

"Well, could you guys call me Blue? That's what my friends in L.A. called me." Skye looked up from her steak.

"Sure," Luna nodded to her roommate. She sat down and started to eat her steak. I sat down too, next to Blue and Caleb, and started to eat my lunch as well.

"Well, while we're on the nickname subject, could you call me Wisty? That was what my New York friends used to call me, and my mom too." I asked my friends.

"No problem," Blue responded, and then asked Caleb and Alex," So what element are you guys?"

"Fire." Caleb answered, looking up for the first time. His eyes were golden drops of sun while Alex's eyes were deep blue like Diamond's.

"Air. Any more questions about school?" Alex offered.

"Um," I started, "Is there a day family gets to visit or something?"

Caleb answered instead of Alex. "Yes. On October 29, family visits."

"Thanks." I returned to my steak and potatoes.

• • •

"Okay," Diamond giggled in their dorm, "Truth or dare?"

I introduced Truth or Dare to Diamond and Luna while she and Blue visited our dorm that night. Blue agreed with my idea so we taught the Nerian girls about the American game.

"Dare!" Luna answered, her red eyes glittering.

"Yay! Alright, I dare you to...to... Chug a gallon of milk in an hour, no magic allowed!" Diamond dared Luna.

Luna laughed. "That's barely a challenge!" She grabbed a gallon of milk and chugged a quart of it every fifteen minutes.

"Nice." Blue smiled. "It's getting late. Should we be going back to our dorms?"

"Are you kidding? Never!" Luna whacked her roommate in the head with one of Diamond's pillows.

"Hey!" Blue screeched, grabbing one of my pillows and laughing as she swung it at Luna. Diamond and I glanced at each other and joined in. Within twenty minutes, we were worn out and laughing so hard our stomachs hurt.

"It's midnight, we should be getting to bed." I said, yawning.

"Okay, fine. See you guys tomorrow!" Blue yawned too and walked out of our dorm.

"Peace! Good night!" Luna walked out after Blue.

"Good night, Wisty!" Diamond smiled and climbed into her bed.

"Night, Diamond. See you in the morning!" I climbed into my bed too and drifted off.

 _There will be seven, one to be taken, one already stolen, with powers better than their ancestors themselves, to rise up against the Defeated One, the outcome of the final battle unknown... Their great powers and The Final battle will be known in the stars..._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

I stared at my schedule. I still hadn't memorized what order my classes were in.

 _History of Magic, Monster Class, History of Neria, History of Water Magic, Lunch, Water Magic 101, Non-Magic Folk, Secrets of Water Magic, Mythical Creatures_. Too many history classes!

I hadn't been planning on telling anyone about the dream I had last night either, and the words have been running through my head since I woke up an hour ago.

"Hey, Wisty, good morning." Diamond stretched and got out of her bed, the usual cheeriness missing from her voice. "Why are you up so early?"

"I-uh... Well, I heard something fall and I woke up," I felt horrible lying to my friend, but I wasn't about to say I was afraid of a dream of repeating words. Even if they were ominous words.

"Well, I had a weird dream." Diamond yawned, after she got changed.

"Did you?" I tried to play it cool, but my curiosity was burning like fire. Could we have had the same dream? No, I chided myself. That's impossible.

"Yes," Diamond hesitated. "I need to tell someone. It's a little creepy, really." She took a deep breath. "There was a...prophecy, I think. It said something about seven people, one stolen and one to be taken, and a bunch of stuff about 'The Final Battle' and powers, and stuff about 'their powers being more legendary than their ancestors themselves.' Also, their powers will be know in the stars..."

"Oh my gosh. Diamond." I looked at her. "We had the exact same dream."

Diamond stared at me. "You're kidding."

"No, really! I swear! I don't know what it means, but I know it's important." I paused. "Do you think we're involved?"

"I-I do." Diamond nodded. "But who are the other five?"

"I don't know," I answered, "But c'mon, we still have school today. Let's get ready."

• • •

At lunch, they were serving pasta with marinara sauce, meatballs, fruit salad and, of course, the soda. I sat down with the usual crew: Blue, Diamond, Luna, Caleb and Alex. Everyone was a bit grim, a dank mood stretched across them like a thick blanket.

"What's wrong with everyone today?" Diamond asked, trying to sound happy in attempt to make everyone feel better.

"I had a nightmare." Blue came right out and said it. "About The Final Battle and great powers being known in the stars, I think it's a prophecy. Luna had it too."

Diamond and I shared knowing glances as Luna nodded, looking slightly embarrassed.

"We had it too. We think it involves us, all of us. Right here at this table. We think we are part of this prophecy." Alex added.

"There's six... Where's the seventh?" I wondered.

"Well, the prophecy did say 'one already taken,' so that's probably our seventh. I guess we have to find him." Caleb spoke up.

"Or her!" Blue added. With that, the bell rang and everyone left. I threw out my trash and hurried to Water Magic 101.

This was my favorite class, because I got to apply magic with only learning about magic itself, how to manipulate the deep blue waves of the water. I didn't have to take notes. I didn't have any written tests. The teacher, Mrs. Hart, the Headmaster's wife, was super nice. The only tests we took was to see how well we could perform the elemental magic.

"Hey, Wisty!" She was the only teacher to call me by my nickname. "Take a seat. We have important stuff to cover today."

"Okay," I sat down next to Carla, one of my other water elemental friends, "What are we learning today?"

"I'll tell everyone when the whole class gets here. Or when the bell rings. Whichever comes first." Mrs. Hart smiled. The rest of the class filed in the room and Mrs. Hart took her place in front of everyone.

"Today we'll be learning how to get water from anywhere. Clouds, grass, other plants, even living animals and humans, but that's for your next year. Follow me outside." Mrs. Hart walked out of her room, the rest of us following her out to the school courtyard. She was already sweeping her hand over the grass, a thick trail of pale blue water flowing behind her hand. She quickly formed it into a ball, keeping it hovering above her hand.

A kid named Kevin raised his hand. "Can we try now?" He asked Mrs. Hart.

"Yes. Spread out!" She answered. Everyone scattered, including me. I went towards a patch of grass underneath a windowsill, figuring it wouldn't have the heat or sunlight it needed to evaporate most of the water.

"Okay, let's try this," I muttered to myself. Kneeling down, I stuck my arm out in front of me and slowly moved it sideways. I didn't expect anything to happen the first time, but a stream of water rose out of the now blackened and dead grass and followed my arm. I curled it up into a ball as Mrs. Hart had done, then split it in half so two spheres of water were floating above my hands.

"Very good, Wisty!" I heard Mrs. Hart's voice behind me. "First one to get it that fast all day." She nodded approvingly and went off to help Kevin, who apparently had trouble getting the water out of the ground. He was near a patch of almost dead grass. Go figure.

"Everyone, head inside, it's almost time for your next class." Mrs. Hart led into the school, which is good, because I probably would have gotten lost. I picked up my stuff, which was the same for every class and consisted of a blue binder with a bunch of loose leaf paper, three mechanical pencils and a book. I hurried to Non-Magical Folk, which was the worst class because I already knew just about everything about non-magic people, considering I lived among them for about fourteen years.

"Alright class, take out your notes from yesterday." Mr. Smiths was the most boring teacher I have ever met, and he sounded depressed about everything. So every day, I went from the best class to the worst. "Today we're learning about this thing they call a 'flashlight'". I quietly groaned and put my face on the desk. As the teacher droned on, I pretended to take notes, my mind drifting to the dream I had last night.

A million questions ran through my head. Who was the seventh? Where were they? How were we supposed to find them? Who was the Defeated One? Why were we supposed to fight him?

"Wisteria. Answer the question." Mr. Smiths looked at me with his cold blue eyes. "What does a flashlight do?"

"Oh. Well, it uses electricity to enable non-magical people to see in the dark by flicking a button so a beam of light comes out." I answered, trying my best to sound smart.

"Very good. Now, this here is the rubber duck..." As Mr. Smiths droned on about the functions of a children's bath toy, I zoned out again, pondering the prophecy. Suddenly, the bell rang and class was dismissed. I suddenly remembered that Secrets of Water 101 would be canceled today.

Something very exciting was happening in Mythical Creatures today, something that we needed an extra class period for. We were getting our Spirit Animals, ones 'best to assist in our destinies.' That's what Headmaster Hart had said. I read a book like that once, but I didn't think it was real life.

"Alright, everyone. Make a single file line and let's go out to the forest. I know all if the first year students are here but we can make this work," Mrs. Clare instructed every student.

"Does she seriously think we're going to be under control?" I snorted to Blue, Diamond and Luna close enough to hear. They all smiled and nodded, following the rest of the people to the forest.

Once we were there, Mrs. Clare made another announcement. "Now, go into the forest and whatever animal jumps at you first is your animal," When she saw some horrified faces, she laughed and continued, "I'm kidding! What you're really going to do is declare your name and throw these," She handed out multicolored tiny gum ball-shaped objects that were smooth and flawless, like a pearl, "into the air. When you do, they will explode and attract an animal. Good luck and have fun!" Mrs. Clare stepped back with the other teachers and let us loose.

Diamond went first. "Diamond Hopewell!" She shouted. And threw her pearl object into the air and it exploded in orange and yellow light. As the embers floated to the ground, they formed a young phoenix. He fluttered to Diamond's shoulder and sat on it. She giggled and tentatively stroked it. "He's not hot." She smiled.

"My turn!" Luna tossed her pearl into the air and it exploded into black and tan fireworks. The ashes formed a tan and black...cat...thing. The cat bounded over and nuzzled Luna. She chased him around, grinning.

"What is that?" I asked Diamond, who was still watching us get our animals.

"A Snookaloo. They're only from Neria, and they can grow to be six to seven feet tall when they get mad. They're incredibly loyal and surprisingly cute and sweet." Diamond answered.

"Oh, okay." I nodded and then decided to try mine. "Wisteria Myers!" I threw my pearl into the air as it exploded in orange and black. A beautiful female tiger cub came bounding towards me, tripping clumsily over her paws. My heart immediately melted as I fell in love with the tiger. She purred and she looped around my legs, dragging her striped tail across my ankles.

"Skye James!" Skye declared, tossing her pearl up. It exploded into golden sparks and formed a female lion cub who licked her hand as she kneeled down to pet her.

"Okay, well, class dismissed! But one more thing, you can put your animals in dormant form. If you put your arm out, for girls they become a bracelet, and boys they become a leather wristband. No animals in any class but this one. Have a good day!" Mrs. Clare walked back into the scholae elementorum, everyone following and going back to their dorms.

Luna was talking to a tall, blonde-haired guy with dark brown eyes and waved goodbye, smiling. Her Snookaloo was trailing happily behind her.

"Who was that?" I asked, teasing.

"I'll tell you tomorrow, I promise," She blushed, turned her animal to dormant form, and rushed inside.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Mythical Creatures was now one of the most popular classes, and I will admit that I like it a lot more now. I still like Water Magic 101 the best, but Mythical Creatures was a close second.

Diamond and I were visiting Luna and Blue's dorm and playing truth or dare again. It was Luna's turn.

"Truth or dare!" Blue asked her.

"Truth, I don't want to drink that much milk again." Luna laughed, petting her animal, which she named Snook, who purred in return.

Diamond whispered something in Blue's ear. Blue smiled mischievously. "Okay, is it true that you're dating that guy from Mythical Creatures?"

Luna's face went red. "Um, well, we're engaged."

"Engaged?!" We all yelled.

"Be a little louder, I don't think Headmaster Hart heard you downstairs." Luna hissed, glaring with her red eyes.

"Sorry," I apologized, "But engaged?! Aren't you a little young for that?"

"I was engaged at the age of seven. I'm a princess, remember? My sister Selena has been engaged for twenty years, and as soon as my parents are fifty-five, she's going to get married." Luna rolled her eyes.

"How old are your parents?" Diamond asked. "Thirty-ish?"

"Fifty three." Luna answered. "My sister will be ruling this country in about three years."

"Whoa." We all said. It was silent, so I started fiddling with my bracelet. It was polished ebony with an orange and black striped circular charm. I released my tiger, named Ember. She purred and licked my hand, and then romped around with Snook.

"So cute!" Diamond giggled and released her phoenix, Max, from her shiny gold bracelet with a red sparkle in the circle charm. Max flew circles around the other animals.

"Okay, just don't tear the room apart," Blue released her lion, Terra, from her copper bracelet with an emerald mountain charm. Terra tackled Snook, and they rolled around, squealing and growling playfully.

Suddenly, Ember bumped into a dresser, knocking a big glass orb off if it.

"No!" Blue lunged, but she couldn't catch it. She looked crestfallen. "That-that was the one thing I brought with me from L.A. It was an enchanted music box, only a glass orb, that played the first song my mom made... Now it's gone."

"Actually, I think it's okay," I leaned over the side if the bed we were sitting on, seeing a thick vine curling up from the floor and around the orb, cushioning the fall. The tendrils wrapped safely around the orb, encasing it in a layer of green.

"Did I cause that?" Blue asked.

"Well, it wasn't any of us!" Luna gave Blue a sarcastic look.

"Cool," Diamond looked at the vine that had suddenly sprouted from the floor. "Mr. Darnel said that usually it takes almost a lifetime for people's powers to be able to trigger themselves in times of distress!"

"The prophecy..." I whispered, "It told of our powers being greater than our ancestors. Being known in the stars. This must be what it meant."

"I guess so," Luna nodded. "It's getting late. I mean, we don't have school tomorrow, but still."

"Okay, night guys!" Diamond and I left and went to bed.

• • •

I woke up remembering that it was Family Day. I jolted out of bed, threw my best clean clothes on, which happened to be the clothes I wore on my first day here, and woke Diamond up.

"What, Wisty?" She complained. She rolled over. "It's too early to be awake."

I looked at the clock, which read 6:48. "No it's not! You get up in ten minutes for school anyways! C'mon, it's Family Day! Aren't you excited?" I shook her shoulder again.

"Well, yes, but I like sleep." Diamond rolled back over to look at me. We had a silent argument and then she sighed. "Fine, I'm getting up."

"Well, it starts at eight, but there's breakfast at 7:30," I said, "and we might want to see Blue and Luna beforehand."

"Calm down. It's okay." Diamond rolled her eyes in fake annoyance. "Alright, I'm ready." She wore a loose cream colored top that complemented her gold bracelet, and pale golden leggings.

We knocked on Luna and Blue's dorm door. "Come in!" Luna's voice called from behind it. We both entered.

"Whoa." We stared at Luna. She wasn't dressed in her usual black jeans and red-and-white t-shirt, but she had a black ballroom gown on, with her hair in a single braid. Red rubies sat in her hair, and her brass and silver bracelet glinted on her arm.

"I know, right?" Blue complained teasingly. "How can I top that?" She was wearing a light tan shirt and a green skirt.

"It was originally my mother's. She gave it to me, and I wanted to look nice on Family Day." Luna smoothed her dress out.

"It's almost time for breakfast. Should we go down?" I suggested.

"Yeah," Diamond agreed, and we walked down to the main hall together. For breakfast, they had waffles, pancakes, cereal, fresh fruit, and a Nerian food called Valein. It was kind of like a waffle with chocolate chips, except it melted in your mouth like cotton candy.

"Hey guys," a voice sounded behind us. We all turned around, and saw the guy from Mythical Creatures.

"Is it true that you and Luna are engaged?" I blurted out, and then covered my mouth with my hand, embarrassed.

"Yeah, Luna said I should come and meet you guys." He sat down and put his arm around Luna. I just noticed his eyes, startling, with black irises and red pupils.

"I'm Diamond." Diamond waved.

"I'm Skye, but my friends call me Blue." Blue introduced herself.

"I'm Wisteria, but you can call me Wisty."

"I'm Ben. Nice to meet you guys." He smiled, and then said, "It's almost time for Family Day to start. I'll see you guys around. "

"Bye, Ben!" Luna waved. He waved back and smiled.

"Can I have everyone's attention, please? Family Day has begun, and all of your parents are here." Headmaster Hart announced. "In the next room. You may now enter."

I walked into the next room, my hopes soaring. The only reason I looked forward to this was because I wanted to see my mom again. But, as I walked into my room, my hopes were dashed. I saw my dad, talking into a small glass circle with a golden ring around it, almost like a monocle, but without a chain.

"No!" He yelled into the glass. "You'll be fine. Just watch the kid and make sure he doesn't freeze anything. I'm at her Family Day thing. I'll talk to you later." He put the thing in his pocket, the turned around to see me standing there. "Wisty! I, uh, that was another babysitter. I was watching someone's son but came here for your Family Day."

"Hi, Dad!" I hugged him, pushing my suspicions away. As we pulled away, I asked hesitantly, "Where's mom? I thought she was going to be here today."

"Well, I wasn't planning on telling you this today, because it's supposed to be happy, but..."

"What? But what?" I cut him off, my heart dropping into my chest.

"Your mother... She has cancer. I'm so sorry, I tried to save her, but she's so sick. There's nothing I could do." He bowed his head. My jaw dropped in horror and grief. "It was treatable at first, but it spread so fast, now she has brain cancer, leukemia and lung cancer."

"What...? No! No, your lying!" I cried, choking back tears. "She's not sick..." I protested, but I knew it wasn't true. I suddenly remembered how thin she had been when I left. She probably didn't want to worry me, so she didn't tell me.

Apparently sensing my distress, Ember turned to animal form by herself. I smiled weakly and patted her head. She looked up at me with concerned, bright green eyes.

"Is this your animal, Wisty? Mine was an eagle." He bent down to pet her, but she hissed and ducked away from his hand.

"Oh. Sorry, um, I guess she hasn't met an air elemental yet." I turned Ember back into an ebony bracelet.

"Hasn't met a... Wait, you aren't an air elemental?" My dad looked at me in shock and, to my surprise, a bit of anger.

"Um, no, I'm actually water." I admitted, wishing I could control the tears that threatened to pour from my eyes, because I didn't want to cry about my mom in front of my father.

"Water. Huh. Just like no one from our magic bloodline ever," He looked at me like I was a squashed bug on a newly painted wall. Like I was offensive. Unwanted. I shook the feeling off. My dad couldn't feel that way about me, his only child.

"Okay, everyone! It's time to go back to your dorms. Study, because I know you have exams coming up." Headmaster Hart dismissed every parent from the Great Hall.

"Bye, Dad!" I called as he walked away.

"Bye, Wisty. See you later!" He turned around, his tone cheerful, but his eyes still a bit cold.

As I walked back up to our dorm with Diamond, Luna, and Blue, I suddenly broke down crying halfway up the stairs, on my knees and my face in my hands.

"Oh my gosh! What's wrong?" Blue asked, her hazel eyes worried.

"Are you okay? Hurt? What happened?" Diamond fretted.

"Something wrong?" Luna peered at me, trying to mask it and look dignified as a princess should, but I could see the worry in her crimson eyes.

"My mom," I choked out between sobs. "She...she has three different types of cancer." I told my friends the conversation my dad and I had about that and the disappointment when I told him I wasn't an air elemental.

"It's okay," Blue tried to comfort me. "Your dad loves you. He's probably just not sure how to react."

I sniffled. "Maybe." I croaked, not really believing it. I bolted ahead of the group and burst into my dorm, crying into my pillow. "Why?" I sobbed to myself. "This can't be happening... It can't! What did I do to deserve this?!

"Mom... I love you..." I whispered, like she could hear me. The heavy pain of loss weighed my heart and soul down, my bottom lip still quivering. My mother... My precious mother, who had been so good to me over the years, all the way knowing I would be ripped from her at some point... Just like she was going to be ripped away from me, at any given moment...


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

In the next couple of weeks, my teachers started treating me better. I still had to take tests and stuff, but they were just nicer and didn't make me talk if I didn't want to. I guess Headmaster Hart had been told and alerted the teachers. I hated being treated different. Kids were asking me what was going on, and I really didn't want to tell them.

"This is so hard." Diamond complained later in our dorm. She had a bunch of homework from her History of Light class. "How am I supposed to memorize all of these famous mages? I don't care if this guy invented the glass prism thingy, if I wanna see rainbows I'll look out the window!"

"Must be boring. I know History of Water is." I murmured, thinking about the MP Sierra and I made. It worked pretty well, but we didn't really know that much about Hera Dylan. The books pretty much repeated everything the other ones said about her, so we kinda made some stuff up. Oh well, 93 isn't bad at all.

Knock knock knock!

"I'll get it," Diamond got up from her bed and walked over to the other side of the room. "Oh, hello Headmaster!" She chirped.

"Hello, I'm here for Wisty. Is she here right now?" Headmaster Hart peered into the room.

"I'm right here," I came over to the door. "What do you need me for?" I asked, keeping my voice light, even though I was scared of what was going to happen.

His voice dropped to a whisper. "Here." He handed me a letter. "Take this."

"Okay, thanks." I took it and closed the door as he walked away. I sat on my bed and ripped the envelope open. I read it, my heart breaking more with every sentence. Every word. I threw it down before I even finished it.

The letter was from the hospital my mom was apparently staying at. My mother was gone. Passed.

Dead.

I would never see her again, never hear her voice, never even feel her ruffle my hair like she used to...

I buried my face in my hands and started to sob. Again.

"Wisty! What...? Oh." Diamond picked up the letter. "I'm really sorry."

"Don't be. It's not your fault." I looked away, embarrassed and upset. Why was this happening? It wasn't fair. My mom didn't deserve to die. She was so sweet and amazing.

Was. The past-tense word made me cry more, and I burrowed into my bed and cried myself to sleep for the first time since... Well, forever.

• • •

"Hey," Caleb said to me at lunch. "I... I heard about your mom. I'm so sorry."

"Thanks." I appreciated his apology, but 'sorry' didn't bring her back. Nothing ever would.

"Hey guys!" Blue sat down with Luna and Diamond. "Wait. Where's Alex?"

"He's coming. Why?" Caleb responded.

"I had a dream last night, and I think you guys should know about it." She whispered just loud enough for us to hear. "Wisty, what happened?"

"My mom. She's dead." I barely choked the words out.

"What?" Luna and Blue exclaimed at the same time.

"I found out yesterday." I poked at my ribs, which I loved, with my fork. I had only taken a couple of bites but I didn't have much of an appetite.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Wisty... Are you okay?" Blue asked.

"Yeah, just peachy," I said sarcastically, then sighed. "Sorry."

"It's fine. This must be hard for you." Blue nodded.

"What was your dream?" Luna asked when Alex sat down.

"Oh, right. Well I was standing in a dark room with all of you guys. Then you were buried under, like, rocks or something. I'm not sure. Then Alex disappeared and then you guys were free, we tried to look for him but we couldn't find him. Then there was this man in a black cloak. And then I woke up." Blue told us.

"Oh. Um, what'a that supposed to mean?" Alex looked at Blue as if she had turned into a large spider.

"I'm sure it's nothing," Diamond said. "This is kinda confusing. I mean, I didn't ask to be part of a prophecy."

"I know, right? When I told my father and Selena, they just laughed at me and my father said I was delusional." Luna grumbled.

"I haven't told anyone yet. Just you guys." I admitted.

"Me neither." Caleb agreed. "And I'm still wondering who the seventh one is."

"Well, there are seven elements, right? And the only one we're missing is ice. So, he or she must be ice." Diamond said.

"No dip," Luna rolled her eyes.

"Well, the bell is about to ring. We should probably start going." Alex got up. I took a couple more bites of my barbecue ribs. I threw my stuff in the trash, where it magically disappeared, and headed to my next class. At least now I was going to Water Magic 101.

"Hey Wisty. I heard about your mom." Mrs. Hart gave me a sad smile. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," I mumbled, then sat down in my seat. That was a huge lie. It felt like my soul had been shattered and there were too many pieces to even consider putting it back together.

"Today," Mrs. Hart explained when everyone came in the room, "we are going to learn how to perform something called a snake, and if you don't get it at first, don't worry. It's pretty hard." She put a small bowl out in front of all of us, each filled with water.

My dad's cold eyes flashed in my mind as I stared at the bowl, the one from my trial. If I had been an air elemental, then maybe my dad would be proud of me.

"Okay, to do the snake, you have to move your hand in a straight line, and wait did the trail if water, just like we did with the grass. Then you can make it follow your arm's movement, and make it bend. When it bends in two different ways, it's called a snake. Then, you can make it lash out and strike something. Very useful if you're trying to break something, such as, well, say your tangled in a vine or something. You could use the snake to break that." Mrs. Hart demonstrated.

I moved my arm over the bowl of water, my hand shaking with the memory of the shame written clearly across my dad's face. The water came out smoothly anyways, as I tightened the muscle in my hands and the water bent, resembling, well, a snake. I loosened my hand and the snake water straightened out swiftly, striking the air.

"Very good, Wisty." Mrs. Hart nodded to me, but for once I couldn't feel proud because she praised me. Soon, the bell rang. I sighed. Off to the most boring class of the day.

That was probably good. I needed a nap anyways


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

I still couldn't believe that my mom was dead. But I guess I just had to get over it. I had schoolwork, exams, Ember to take care of, a prophecy to worry about...

I sighed. I guess my plate was full for now. I tapped on my bracelet, and Ember came out. She licked my hand, like she did every time she was released, and purred. Tigers usually can't purr, but mine was special. Magical.

"Hey," Diamond said, "It's almost time for school to start. Don't you have an exam today?"

"No, today is my Non-Magical Folk exam. Since I have an 100 in that class, I don't need to take it." I looked up at my friend.

"Lucky! You didn't have to take your Water Magic 101 exam either. Okay, see you in a couple of hours." Diamond left for her exams.

"Bye!" I waved after her. I turned back to Ember, whose striped and black-tipped tail was flicking as she looked at a loose strand of my hair.

"Rawr!" She playfully sprang as I ducked, leaving a confused baby tiger on the top of my head.

"Enjoying the view?" I laughed as Ember sat up tall and prepared to jump off. She landed in my lap and began to purr as I stroked her, then she closed her green eyes and snored softly.

Someone knocked on the door. "Hey, it's Luna! Can I come in?" Not waiting for an answer, she entered my dorm room with Snook bounding after her.

"Sure, come on in," I muttered.

"What's up? You don't have to take your exam today?" Luna asked, sitting down on the floor next to me.

"No, it's for Non-Magical Folk. I'm doing well in the class so I'm not taking the exam." I said, still stroking Ember, who was waking up because of Snook's romping around.

"Ugh, I hate that class." Luna nodded. "My exam today is Dark Magic 101, and I have an 100, so I don't need to take it either."

"I hate that class, too. It's so boring! And I already know all the stuff. I swear I fell asleep when he was teaching us about the Empire State Building." I snorted.

"Um, same. What is that, again?" Luna asked me.

I laughed. "It's a very tall skyscraper in New York."

"Thanks." Luna smiled. Snook and Ember were done playing and they had curled up in their owners laps. They purred and fell asleep.

"I didn't know Snookaloos could purr." I smiled, stroking Ember again. She looked up at me tiredly and snuggled into the crook of my knee.

"Yeah, isn't he so cute?" Luna grinned and I nodded, still petting Ember. I blinked my sea-green eyes at her. She was sleeping so peacefully, without a care in the world. I wish I could be like that some day.

"Wha-?" Luna's head snapped back involuntarily and her eyes went dark. Suddenly I felt my own head flip back and my vision blacked out.

"Hello?" I was in the room Blue had described in her dream, but this was more like a vision since I was awake. "Anyone?"

"Wisty?" Caleb's voice came from the darkness. "Is that you?"

"Guys! Where are we?" Luna asked, looking around and suddenly materializing next to us.

"Um, I was just thinking the same thing..." Blue appeared.

"What the heck?" Diamond exclaimed, looking around.

"Is everyone okay?" Alex's asked aloud. He appeared next to Caleb.

"What's going on?" I looked around warily.

"Hello, Chosen Ones." A dark and creepy voice that sounding strangely familiar said from the darkness.

"Chosen Ones?" I heard Blue ask quietly, almost to herself.

"Yes, Chosen Ones! Wow, you guys are even more naïve than I thought." His voice was dripping with impatience and almost hatred. "Your the ones the prophecy spoke of! With the 'powers known in the stars' and all of that."

"So what if we are?" Luna snarled and suddenly she did something I had no idea she could do: she turned into a shadow-black wolf on the spot. She lunged at the place where the voice was coming from but she landed on the ground without hitting anything.

"Foolish Luna. Face it, you'll never be as good as your sister. She's just that much better than you. You have to accept it someday." The voice popped up somewhere else. Luna stumbled but kept going.

"Your father doesn't really love you. And you know it. Why keep fighting?" The voice purred. This caught Luna the wolf off guard. She turned back into a human. Black wolf ears and a tail stayed with her.

"Stop it! That's not true!" She screeched. She tried to run at the voice but a huge rock fell on her.

"Luna!" Blue screamed. "Are you okay?!"

"Yes, never better! Blue, I'm stuck under a rock! Of course I'm not 'okay!'" Luna glared at her friend and went on trying in vain to get out from under the rock.

"You guys are seriously slowing me down. I'm just going to crush all of you and leave." The voice dismissively said. Huge rocks came out of nowhere and crushed me and my friends. The room got darker, if it all possible, and I guess I blacked out.

I opened my eyes. I was still in that room, except it had gotten lighter. The colors swirled until I realized I was back in my dorm, sitting on the floor with Luna as if nothing ever happened. Ember was looking at me with confusion and worry evident in her green eyes.

"Ugh," I groaned, "does your back hurt too?" I rubbed my back where the rock had crushed me. As it turned out, my vision was very real.

"Guys!" Diamond and Blue burst through the door. Can you believe what just happened?!"

"My back hurts," Luna moaned.

"Same." Diamond said, sitting down on the floor.

"I didn't know visions could hurt this bad," I mumbled, putting Ember in her dormant form. The ebony bracelet shone on my arm as if Ember was protesting thats she didn't want to be put away.

"Me neither." Blue said. "But... Luna... You can turn into a wolf?!"

"Yeah, I thought I told you," Luna said, "No? Okay. Well, I can turn into a wolf." She still had the black ears and tail.

"We kinda got that." I rolled my eyes.

"I wonder where Alex and Caleb are." Diamond looked up at the ceiling, which she did when she was thinking.

"I'm not sure, but we definitely need to talk about this. All together." I said, fiddling with my bracelet.

• • •

Come on... I couldn't wait for History of Water Magic to end. Next period was lunch and I had to talk to the guys about the vision we all had too, not just the girls.

"And at this point in history, Hera Dylan was dead, and the war between air elementals and water elementals was over. This was a very important turning point in the water magic development because..." Mr. Collin droned on and on about some stupid war. Finally, the bell rang. "Remember to do your homework!" He called.

"It's already done," I muttered. I did it in class and he didn't even notice. I hurried to lunch, where they had pulled pork sandwiches. I quickly got my lunch and sat down at the table.

"Okay guys. Wisty's here." Caleb said. "We need to talk about this."

"Definitely," Luna agreed.

"Do you think that was the future?" Blue asked. "I kinda do."

"Well, maybe." Alex shrugged. "To be quite honest, I'm not sure."

"I don't know what that was either. All I know is that Luna makes a pretty scary wolf." Caleb joked. I grinned. At least he had a good sense of humor to lighten the mood.

"I've always been able to do that. Not sure why." Luna admitted.

"Well, one thing is for sure. If any of us have something like that again, we have to tell everyone." I looked at everyone. "No exceptions."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

A couple days had passed since the vision we all had. Exams were over and most of them had been pretty easy. Now it was back to the regular school days, and break wasn't that far away. Even though some people in the scholae elementorum didn't celebrate Thanksgiving, most did. Neria, for instance, did celebrate Thanksgiving.

"Wisty, stop playing with Ember. It's Friday, not Saturday." Diamond joked. "We have school today."

I sighed. "I know." I put Ember in dormant form. I got my stuff and trudged down the stairs to my first class, History of Magic. I wondered what we were learning about today because Mr. Alls had said we were learning something important and interesting. Then again, knowing him, we'll probably be learning about Hera Dylan. Again.

"Welcome, class!" Mr. Alls said as we sat down. "We are going to start a new unit."

"On what?" Some kid named Jerry called out. "How the world was born?" He smiled at his own stupid joke. I rolled my eyes.

"No." Mr. Alls said. "The Defeated One."

Shocked murmurs floated around the room like a quickly growing cloud. I looked at Mr. Alls.

"Quiet down and take out your books!" He snapped. Mr. Alls was that kind of teacher. Nice one second, mean the next. I sighed and got the magical textbook our from under my desk. The textbook flipped to the pages on the Defeated One by itself, and Mr. Alls began to tell us about him.

"We know the Defeated One is a man, because his voice is obviously male. He wore a black cloak and he tried to start a war against Neria by taking children and training them to be like him. Sometimes he killed them if they didn't live up to his expectations." Mr. Alls said. He glanced around the room knowingly.

"Well. There's another thing too!" A girl named Hannah called. "I heard," her voice dropped to a whisper, "I heard he's coming back. Rising against us again."

"Ah. I've heard that too." Mr. Alls crossed the room to where Hannah sat. "I also heard they train students in their dreams." Many gasps and murmurs of shock floated around again.

Jerry raised his hand. When Mr. Alls called in him he said in a small voice, "Is that true?"

Mr. Alls spread his hands out. "Who can say for sure?" He shrugged, coming out if creepy mode. I looked around. Was I the only one weirded out by how Mr. Alls talked so casually about the Defeated One?

Is Mr. Alls working with the Defeated One? I looked at my History if Magic teacher. No, I chided myself. He's a teacher. You must be going out if your mind to think that. I focused back in on what he was saying.

"And for the rest if class, you'll be finishing your homework, which is to research how the Defeated One came to power. This is due in two days, so on Wednesday, and you'll be presenting your findings to the class." Mr. Alls dismissed the class to go to the library.

"This is going to be so interesting! Don't you think?" Sierra said to me. She was in this class with me too.

"Yeah," I answered, feeling a bit less eager than her. The talk in class had sent the prophecy running through my mind again and again.

• • •

"Hey." Caleb gestured for me to sit next to him at the lunch table. "There's something I need to tell you."

"Um, okay." I sat down, keeping a lookout for Alex, who usually sat where I was. "What's up?"

"Well, I've been meaning to tell everyone this, but I'm afraid Luna will yell at me and Diamond will stop hanging put with Alex and I. But I know I can trust you, so... Here goes nothing." Caleb took a deep breath and paused.

"Um, you gonna go, or...?" I looked at him as I saw Alex coming through the lunch line.

"Oh yeah. Yeah, sorry, I got lost in thought." Caleb apologized, then went on, dropping his voice as Luna, Blue and Diamond started walking over. "At night, every night when I fall asleep, I dream of this place. A place where a man in a black cloak tells me I can be more powerful then my parents. My parents, both magical, both saw me as a disgrace. They were both earth. Earth and fire... They don't get along. Anyways, he promised me greatness and started to train me to fight along with a couple other students from-" Caleb broke off. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry..." I looked at him. He had broke off because I cringed and turned pale. I couldn't help but think of the poor kids that the Defeated One killed when he had power. In their dreams, when he trained them to fight for his side. "We learned about this earlier. Caleb, you can't do this. He'll- he'll kill you." I could barely choke the word out.

His golden eyes hardened. "You're wrong. I know you are. You're just jealous, because he hasn't chosen you." He looked away as everyone else sat down. I moved to my regular seat when Alex came and was waiting awkwardly as Caleb and I finished our friendly conversation.

"What was that about?" Luna asked. "Are you guys dating or something?"

Both Caleb and I whipped around to face her. My green eyes were blazing. "No!" We yelled.

Blue and Diamond looked taken aback. I couldn't blame them, I usually never got mad at my friends like that.

"Sheesh. It was just a question." Luna rolled her blood red eyes at me in annoyance.

"Sorry. I just... It was nothing." I finished my lunch of hamburgers and french fries in silence, feeling empty and disappointed for some reason.

The rest if my classes passed in a blur. The only thing I could really remember was how Mrs. Hart taught us how to form water into the shape of an animal. The rest of the day just kinda flew by, and as I was doing homework in my dorm, Diamond sat down in my bed next to me.

"It's almost 9:30 and we have school tomorrow. This is due in two days, right?" She smiled tiredly.

"Yes." I erased a mistake. "But I want to have it done."

"Go to bed." Diamond persuaded. "I'm turning the light off soon."

"I'm not tired," I protested, but a large yawn contradicted me. "Fine." I got up to change into pajamas and the climbed back into my bed.

"Good night, Diamond."

"Night, Wisty!"

I quickly fell asleep. When I woke up, I saw I wasn't in my dorm anymore. I was in a large, damp cave surrounded by other students. I looked around, quickly realizing that I hadn't woken up at all.

"Hey, Wisty? Is that you?" I heard Caleb's voice behind me. "I never knew you were here!"

"Hello, Wisteria." A man in a black cloak said in a deep voice, sending chills down my spine. "Welcome to the Nightmare Realm."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

"Why am I here?" I demanded.

"I don't know, Wisteria, why don't you ask yourself that question?" The man in the black cloak lifted his arms, gesturing to the vast ocean of students. "Everyone here is destined for greatness, and they all came here because of jealousy, or resentment, or some other feeling of hate. Now, why are you here?"

"I don't know..." I lied, dropping my gaze. I knew I was here partly because Caleb told me about it and I was curious, but the other part was shame and resentment towards my father, who looked at me like I was worthless that day. Even though when I've called him lately, he sounds polite and friendly, but I know its forced. I know my dad is ashamed of me.

"Well maybe you can figure it out. I- and some of my friends- are here to train you to be the best you can be." As the man said this, more men and maybe some women, all in black cloaks, materialized behind him. I looked around in surprise.

"I'm so glad your here!" Caleb ran over next to me. "I know you'll like it."

"Yeah, I'm sure." I responded.

"This is the Nightmare Realm, and this cave here is called the Dark Cave. This is where the...ah...powerful beings go after death. Now, we will be working with you in groups, almost like tournaments." The man boomed. I was just noticing how loud his voice was.

"You can call me Falcon." Another man stepped up. "My group for tonight is Marie, Ryan, Kevin and Gretchen."

"I'm Eagle, and I'll take Caleb, Harry, Wisteria and Carrie." As I heard my name I stepped forward with Caleb and followed him, Eagle and the rest of my group to another part of the cave. This part had huge and wide stalagmites growing up from the cave floor like trees if stone.

"Welcome to the training cave. There are others, but I use this on every time." Eagle gestured around him. "Tonight we'll be testing your agility and speed under pressure."

Harry raised his hand. "What does that mean?"

"It means you battle each other and see who can use the surroundings to get the better of their opponent in combat." Eagle turned around to face Harry. I knew his eyes were blazing under his hood, which covered his face. Harry flinched.

"Who will the teams be?" Carrie called.

"I was getting to that." Eagle's voice was dripping with annoyance. "Yeah, okay, Harry and Wisteria, Caleb and Carrie."

Harry and I walked over to where Eagle had pointed for us to go. It was a huge patch of stalagmites that were different heights. Suddenly, a streak of light whizzed past my ear.

"Hey! Are you trying to kill me?!" I yelled at Harry.

He looked confused, then shrugged. "That's what we do here. We use our magic to become great. Even if it means taking the weaker down." His eyes took on a dangerous gleam. He got his hands ready to shoot another ball of light. As he did, I somehow leaped to the side and landed on a stalagmite.

"Okay, you asked for this," I murmured. I saw water dripping from the roof of the cave. As Harry prepared another ball if light, water shot at him. He ran and flipped over a rock, but the water followed him and eventually overcame him.

"Air..." He gasped, clutching at his throat.

I ran over to him. "Oh my gosh... What have I done?" I tried to help him breathe by sitting him up against the wall of the cave room. I put my hand on his chest where his lungs would be and ran my hand up until water came out of his lips. He started to cough violently.

"Why did you help me? I was fine on my own!" He choked. "I told you, it's what we do here."

"You're welcome." I shot him a look. I looked down and noticed a slight pale patch on my arm where the skin had been almost burned away. Not quite, maybe just kind of disintegrated a bit, but I still knew that Harry had done this.

"How are we doing over here?" Eagle stepped out from behind the shadows. "Very good, Wisteria." At once I knew I did not want this man's praise, not now, not ever. "But you, Harry... Getting beaten by the new girl... That's not good enough. Not for me."

"No." Harry's head shot up. "Please. Please, please don't kill me..." He begged as Eagle moved as quick as a cheetah and slammed his head against the rock wall. I flinched as his head banged against the stone with a sickening crack.

"Don't worry. I won't kill you." Eagle's voice sounded menacing. "At least, not tonight."

I shuddered. Blinking my eyes, I realized I woke up, because I was back in my dorm. Diamond wasn't awake yet, so I released Ember.

"We have to be quiet, okay?" I said to her. She looked up at me. "Listen," I blurted to her, unable to keep it in. "I cannot train there anymore. Not in that horrible place. I know children have died there." I took a shaky breath. "The only problem is, I don't think I have a choice in whether or not I go back." Ember kept staring at me, pity and concern for me clear in her eyes, and I knew I made the wrong decision about even showing up there in the first place.

"Good morning, Wisty!" Diamond stretched and got out if bed. "Why are you up this early? Did you have a bad dream?"

I cringed. That was too close to the truth. "No," I lied, feeling terrible about it. I put Ember in dormant form and as soon as I got dressed, I heard a knock at my door.

"I got it." I put my shoes on and opened the door to find Caleb standing there.

"Hey," he said. "Can we...?" He gestured with a slight jerk of his head for me to follow him out the door.

"Yeah, sure." I followed him. Once we were in the hall, I said, "Is this about last night?"

"Yes. Wisty, I know that you aren't comfortable there. But please. Give it a try. I know they're trying to help us there! Just give it a chance." Caleb pleaded. "For me."

"Ugh...fine." I wanted to protest, but I couldn't. I wasn't sure why, but I knew I had to go back sometime. "By the way, do you ever get...wounds there? Because I got this last night and it's still there." I showed him by 'burned' patch of skin.

"Oh, yeah, I've gotten tons of bruises and stuff. But the pain helps you become stronger. Besides, it goes away as soon as you visit again." Caleb nodded.

"You have a choice?!"

"Um, yes. They give you a couple nights off a week." He explained. "Well, I better go. I'll talk to you later!"

"Okay, thanks. Bye!" I waved to him and went back into my dorm.

"What was that about?" Diamond asked.

"Oh... He was just wondering if we had any homework in History of Magic." I lied yet again.

"But he's a year older than you." Diamond tilted her head.

I fake laughed. "That's what I tried to tell him!" I picked up my stuff. "We better get going it's almost time for breakfast." I sighed, knowing a long day, and night, were ahead of me.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Two week had passed since I visited the Nightmare Realm, and I had gotten many more injuries, such as burns, patches of darkened skin from dark magic, more dissolved skin from light magic, and bruises from rocks. As I sat bored in Secrets of Water Magic, where the lesson today was oceans around the world, I recalled my first visit to the Dark Cave. I felt so bad about hurting Harry when he didn't hurt me very much.

"Wisteria, what is the ocean of the coast of New York and Maine?" Mrs. Jones asked me.

I almost snorted. This question was too easy, considering I lived near Long Island most of my life. "The Atlantic." I answered.

"Correct." Mrs. Jones nodded, and went on with the boring lesson. I yawned and slipped into sleep, half expecting to be in the Dark Cave. I didn't end up there, apparently that only worked at night.

The bell suddenly rang. I jerked awake, grabbed my stuff, and ran out the door to the courtyard for Mythical Creatures. As soon as I was outside, I saw Ben playing with a red and black lynx.

"Hey!" I walked over to where he was and sat down next to him in the grass. I released Ember so she and the lynx could play.

"Hi, Wisty! Who's this?" He gestured to Ember. "The lynx is mine. His name is Lynk."

"Oh, this is my tiger, Ember." I looked at my pet, who was still a baby.

"So, what's up?" He asked.

"Not much," I answered awkwardly. This wasn't really much of conversation. I was super relieved when Terra and Max came from behind us, Diamond and Blue following them.

"Hey, Blue. Hey, Diamond." Ben greeted them.

"Hi!" Diamond panted. "Wow, they're fast! Maybe we should have waited until we got here to let them loose."

"Agreed!" Blue puffed.

"Hey guys, what's going on? Animal party?" Caleb joked as he and Alex walked over. Caleb had his pet, Coen, a fox made of fire. Alex had his pet, Vera, a falcon.

"Snook, wait up!" I heard Luna's frustrated voice come from the school. Snook darted away from his owner, playing chase, as Luna turned into a wolf again and leaped after him. She landed on his back, flipped Snook over and gave him a look before jumping off him again.

"Hey, Luna," Ben said as soon as she walked over, Snook trailing behind her happily.

"Hi, Ben." She slipped her hand in his. I still thought it was weird, seeing them engaged at fourteen years old, but I guess I just had to get used to it.

"Welcome to Mythical Creatures!" Mrs. Clare grinned. This was how she started every class, and it got annoying after about three days. "Today, it's Free Day Friday. You get to just hang out and play with your animals! Now remember the rules..." She tried add, but after the word 'animals,' people cut loose. It got very loud, especially since every kid in the their first, second and third years were there.

"Look what I trained Snook to do!" Luna grinned. She balled her hand into a fist and made a half circle motion with it. Snook jumped up and flipped over in the air, landing on his two hind paws and dropped his front paws.

"Wow! Good job!" Diamond smiled. Snook purred in return.

"It was hard to teach him that, but Ben helped." Luna looked at Ben and they both smiled at each other. The rest of the class was spent goofing off with each other and our animals, and, all too soon, it was time to leave. I put Ember in dormant form and walked with Luna, Ben, Diamond, Blue, Caleb and Alex back into the school.

"I hope that happens every Friday!" Blue said.

"Same," Alex agreed. "I bet it won't happen every time, though."

"Probably not." Ben said, nodding. "Well, this is the way to the boy's dorms. I'll see you guys later." He and Luna hugged and Ben left.

"Bye." Caleb waved to me.

"See you later!" I smiled and waved back.

Alex and Diamond hugged goodbye, and the all of the guys had left.

"So, do you guys want to play Truth or Dare again in our dorm?" Diamond invited.

"Sure!" Blue nodded happily.

"Okay, let's go. I'll race all of you. And win." Luna challenged.

"It's on!" I bolted up the stairs. Luna changed into a wolf yet again and bounded past me and Diamond, who were matched in speed, and Blue, who was in front of us.

"No fair," Blue panted as Luna sat atop the stairs in human form, with her black wolf ears and tail.

"What took you so long?" She smiled smugly.

"Cheater," I grumbled. "Well, whatever, let's just go." Laughing, Luna followed me into the dorm. Diamond and Blue exchanged looks, rolled their eyes, and followed me too.

"Truth or dare?" Diamond asked me once we had all settled in.

"Truth," I answered.

"Okay..." Diamond hesitated, thinking, and then grinning mischievously, "Is it true that you like Caleb?"

"C'mon, we all know the answer to that one." Blue had the same smile on her face as Diamond.

"It's obvious." Luna agreed, catching the contagious smile as well.

I blushed. "Well, I... Uh..."

"The game's called TRUTH or dare!" Blue teased, shoving me a bit with her shoulder.

"Fine. Yes... I have a bit of a crush on Caleb." I admitted.

"I knew it!" Diamond exclaimed. Realizing she was loud she added, "Sorry."

I laughed. "It's okay."

"Okay, Luna, truth or dare?" Blue asked her roommate.

"Umm, dare! I'm up for anything!" Luna answered.

"I dare you to...to... Prank call Selena!" Blue giggled.

"Really? That's all? Fine." Luna picked up the nearest phone, which was the room phone, and dialed Selena's number. She put it on speaker somehow.

"Hello?" Selena's voice came from the other end.

"Hello," Luna said in a stupid voice. "Is... Is James there?"

"Who's James?" I whispered.

"The guy Selena's getting married to." Luna whispered back.

"Um, no, he's at his place." Selena answered. "Wait. Who is this?"

"My name is Fred." Luna kept her stupid voice up.

"Fred? How did you get this number?" Selena snarled.

"Yeah, sorry, I gotta go, but it was nice talking to you." Luna said in her regular voice.

"Wha-? Luna?!" Selena sounded surprised and angry.

"Bye!" Luna chirped, and put down the phone.

"That was hilarious. Her reaction..." I laughed. "'How did you get this number?!'" I said in a mocking voice.

"Good dare!" Diamond giggled.

"Thanks," Blue was laughing too, and so was Luna.

"Okay. Diamond! Truth or dare?" Luna asked.

"Truth, please, I don't want any dares from you." Diamond teased.

"Okay. Is it true that you've lived in Neria all of your life? I know it's kinda lame but I couldn't come up with anything else." Luna shrugged.

"Actually, no. I used to live in central Australia, near Sydney. But when my mom found out Alex was magic, we moved here."

"Oh. Cool!" I answered.

Suddenly, the phone rang again. Hopefully it isn't Selena, I thought. I picked it up.

"Hello," Headmaster Hart said. I breathed a sigh of relief. "This is a school wide call. Curfew is now at ten o'clock, and you must be in your own dorms by then. It is now seven o'clock. Good night, students!"

I put down the phone. "Ten o'clock curfew." I said to my friends.

"Oh, good. I was afraid it would be Selena." Diamond said.

"Me too," Blue agreed.

"Why? What could she do to you?" Luna asked, rolling her eyes. "I mean, she isn't queen yet.

"I know, but still." Blue tried to defend herself.

"I'm tired. This week seemed to drag on forever!" I yawned.

"Same," Diamond agreed.

"Well, we're going to let you guys rest. C'mon, Blue. Let's go," Luna waved to us and Blue said goodbye as she and Luna left our dorm.

"Bye!" We called after them.

I laid down in my bed, pulling the blankets up to my chin. My hand slipped and I punched myself in the face. I groaned.

"Good night, Wisty!" Diamond rolled over, not hearing or seeing me fail at the easiest thing to do since breathing.

"Night, Diamond." I drifted off to sleep, skipping the Nightmare Realm tonight.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

"Well, after a long sleep, I'm still tired," I yawned.

"Same." Diamond stretched. "You know what would be fun?" She tapped Max's charm and the young Phoenix came out. He tweeted happily, giving Diamond an affectionate nip, and flew around circling Ember, who I had just released.

I laughed and Ember fell on Max and then leaped up in surprise. "Hey, Thanksgiving break is coming up."

"Oh yeah, that's right!" Diamond exclaimed. Are you going back to New... Oh. Sorry."

"No, it's okay." I wouldn't be going back to New York, obviously because my mother was dead. How could I have Thanksgiving without her?

"I'm going back to my house, and so is Luna. I'm not sure about Blue." Diamond shrugged, trying to raise my spirits again.

"I'll go ask her, I know Luna is playing with Snook outside." I opened my door and knocked on Blue's.

"Come on in!" I heard her voice from behind the oak wood door.

I walked into her room. "Hey, Blue! Are you going home for Thanksgiving?"

"Well, no. I don't have any transportation to get back to LA without being seen on something magical. I could go underground but... There are some gross skulls and stuff under there and it's extremely muddy." Blue said, looking up at me from on floor where she was teaching Terra a new trick.

"Me neither! At least I won't be a lonely loner," I joked, trying to hide my sadness that I wouldn't be able to spend the holidays with my mom.

"Alright, cool! Since Luna's going to her house-er, castle- then I was afraid I would be alone. Well, I have Terra, but she doesn't exactly speak English..." Blue looked relieved.

"Okay! Well, I have some schoolwork to catch up on. I'll see you around," I waved to Blue and walked out the door.

"Is she going home or staying here like you?" Diamond asked when I sat down with a very sleepy Ember.

"She's staying," I answered, stroking Ember as she fell asleep in my lap once again.

"Oh, good!" Diamond smiled. "Wait, why aren't you going to your house with your dad?"

"He's disappointed in me, remember? Plus, he doesn't have Thanksgiving off from his job." I responded, anger boiling my blood. I shook my head, knowing the Nightmare Realm had been fueling my emotions. I hated feeling this way but as long as I went to the Dark Cave, I knew I would never feel different.

"I'm sure he's over that now," Diamond's gaze softened. "Plus, he could ask for the day off."

"I have schoolwork anyways." At least I wasn't lying this time, I did have a lot of homework, especially from Mythical Creatures. It was a two-page long essay on a creature native to Neria we had been assigned. I luckily got the phoenix, so Diamond kept telling me a bunch of information on Max.

"I'll be going home soon, and I still have to pack some of my stuff up, including homework," Diamond made a face. I laughed and kissed Ember's striped head. She purred quietly, licked my hand, and stood up. Then she walked a couple of feet, sat down, laid her tail neatly around her white paws, and pointed her head towards my arm.

"Oh, do you want to be in dormant form? Okay." I put my arm out and in an orange flash, Ember was an ebony bracelet again.

Diamond stuck her arm out too, and in a reddish flash, Max was a golden bracelet again too.

"So... I better get started on my project," I pulled out a laptop and started to type my essay up. As Diamond packed her stuff, I heard a voice coming from behind our door.

"Hey, Diamond? Are you here?" Alex's voice called.

"I'm here! Come on in!" Diamond called back.

The door opened and Alex came in through the door. Part of me was disappointed that Caleb wasn't with him. I shook the feeling off.

"Hey, Alex. What's up?" Diamond asked.

"Can I talk to you?" He said to Diamond, then looked at me, trying to be polite. "And, um, alone please?"

"Oh. Yeah, sorry." I picked up my notes and laptop and went into another part of the dorm. I could hear mumbling from the other room.

"What?" Diamond exclaimed loudly. After that, I didn't hear much.

• • •

When Diamond was about to leave, getting her stuff together, I asked her what happened.

"Oh. Yeah, well, he just had a dream about the prophecy. But, no big deal, he exaggerated it." Diamond waved goodbye and closed the door behind her.

I got out my laptop again, my project about half finished, and worked on it for a couple more hours. I groaned quietly. This project was way to long! It was about noon so I decided to visit Blue.

"Hey, Wisty!" Blue said as I walked in after knocking. She was reading a book for one of her classes.

"Hey, Blue. Did you hear that the king is passing a new law? No one is allowed to be out of their houses past midnight. I wonder what happened." I said thoughtfully, trying to start a conversation.

"I know," Blue replied. "Luna told me. She isn't sure what happened either." She dropped her voice. "But I hear the Defeated One is rising."

"Really?" I whispered too, even though we were the only ones in the room.

"I guess so. And right about the time we all got the prophecy dream..." Blue drifted off, staring into the air, which she did when she was in deep thought.

• • •

I blinked. Suddenly, I was in the Dark Cave, even though I was awake.

"Wisteria." It was Eagle's voice. "Welcome to our very first day training session." I whipped around, shocked.

"We've gotten powerful enough." Another guy, apparently named Panther, said, eyes glittering maliciously. "We all have."

Cheers went up from everyone except me. I didn't know these people's real intentions but I knew it wasn't to benefit us. Just us.

"Hey, Wisty! Isn't this exciting!" Caleb was suddenly by my side. "Now we're all powerful enough to train in the day! And guess what? We're training against each other today!"

Suddenly I felt sick. "Great!" I faked a smile. We took our positions in the stalagmite room. Our instructions today were to just battle it out. I was still unsure why I was here now, but as a ball of flames whizzed past me, almost catching my hair in fire, I realized I didn't have time to wonder.

As more fireballs came towards me like bullets from a rapid fire machine gun, I jumped up onto the stalagmites one by one, getting higher and higher. I shot spheres of water at Caleb, just enough speed to knock him over, but he made a wall of fire that evaporated them on contact. He then sent the wall at me.

"Whoa," I said quietly as I somehow managed to do a backflip over it and land on the tallest rock. I shot another sphere at Caleb, this one bigger than the rest, and he fell.

I leaped down from the rock I was standing on and saw that he cut his face on a sharp stone.

"Are you okay?! I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed, starting to panic. I was becoming a monster!

"Don't be sorry, that was great," I heard Panther behind me. I had just enough time to wonder why these people all had animal names before he was next to me. "You have potential."

• • •

"Wisty!" Blue yelled, ripping me back from my vision. "What happened?" She sounded horrified. "You just fell on the floor and your eyes looked so blank..." I saw that her face was red and that she must have been crying in panic.

"Listen, there's something I have to tell you." I took a deep breath and prepared to tell Blue the story.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

"Almost every night, in my dreams and now in visions, I go to this place called the Dark Cave. It's in another place called the Nightmare Realm and they train us to fight each other. It kind of scares me and I don't know what their intentions are. But the only reason I'm there is because of how my father isn't proud of me... Everyone there is there because they hate someone for one reason or another. Jealousy, or resentment, or something else like that." I wasn't going to mention that Caleb was there too, and I left out the part where I accidentally hurt people. I was hoping to avoid a question like that until Blue asked-

"Wait, you fight each other? Like, for real?"

I sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. I don't know what they'll do to us if we don't." I struggled to keep my voice even on the last part.

"Well, can't you stop going?" Blue's eyes widened.

"If only," I replied. Blue's face changed, showing pity instead of surprise. She put Terra in dormant form and moved over to where she could talk to me better.

"Can you learn to control it? Like, have it so you can only go at night?" Blue asked.

I pondered this. "Well, maybe." I shrugged. It was a good idea, but unless I'm wrong about the people there, they wouldn't exactly let me do whatever I wanted.

"So no one else we know goes there? Just...just you?" Blue asked, tucking some of her blue-tipped hair behind her ear.

I decided to stretch the truth somehow, because I've already lied to my friends enough. "Well, I've never really been hurt by anyone we know."

Blue still looked curious but obviously decided not to push it. She nodded slightly and looked at the time. "Oh. It's already two and I still have a bunch of homework. I don't want to be rude, but..."

"No, it's okay. I have a bunch of homework too." I got up and walked over to the door. "See you later!"

"Bye!"

Once I was back in my own room, I looked around. It seemed a lot bigger with only one person and no animals in it. I sighed, pulled out my notes and laptop, and started to type up my two-page paper on Phoenixes. Of course the font had to be size ten so we had to type more to fill up the pages.

• • •

About two hours later, while I was still typing up my paper, a knock came at my door.

Wondering who it could be, I called, "Come on in!"

The last person I was expecting to see came through the door. "Hi, Wisty," said Ben.

"Hey, Ben! Wait... Aren't you supposed to be at the castle with Luna? She said that's where you go on the breaks and stuff."

"Well, yeah, usually. But I was sick and I need to catch up on a lot of schoolwork. And I realized I had never gotten my Mythical Creatures project. Like I have my animal, but she didn't tell me what to do for the project for some reason." Ben shrugged. "So... What do we have to do?"

"It's a two page paper on the animal. And it has to be font size ten or else you get points taken off." I said.

"Oh, okay. Thanks!" He turned around to leave, but before he walked out, he looked back at me again. "By the way, Luna thinks Caleb likes you. Bye!" Before I could react, he left and closed the door behind him, leaving my blinking as if I had gotten slapped in the face. I blushed and turned back to my project.

After a while, I had finished my paper (finally!) and started to work on my other homework. I got the Non-Magical Folk homework done very fast without looking at my notes once (what does a shower cap do? Really?) and did the uncollectible homework for Water Magic 101. That was just to practice all of the stuff we learned so far, especially the water animals thing.

It was almost time for dinner, where it would be just Blue, Caleb and I at the table. Tonight we were having something smaller than usual because they were preparing a Thanksgiving dinner for the kids in the school who don't go home for break.

I pulled on a light sweatshirt, because it was a bit cold in the cafeteria when it was cold outside, put on my boots (for fashion, not for the cold) and headed down the stairs.

Once I had gotten my food, I sat down at the table, but it was really empty now that Diamond, Alex, and Luna weren't there. Caleb sat down, interrupting my thoughts. I immediately looked at where the rock had scratched his face.

"How's the cut?" I asked him quietly.

"Huh? Oh, right! Yeah, it's fine. Great job, by the way. You're becoming a great fighter. You beat me and I've been going since over the summer!" Caleb grinned.

"Thanks." I felt a bit proud of his praise. Maybe these people weren't so bad after all...

No. You know they don't have good intentions. I thought, shaking my head slightly. I started to eat my dinner of fried chicken.

"Hey, is something on your mind? You looked like you were thinking about something." Caleb asked.

I was about to tell him no when Blue sat down. "Hi guys! What's up?"

"Hey Blue," Caleb looked up from his dinner.

"Hi, how's your project coming?" I asked, trying to start a conversation. "I just finished mine."

She laughed. "I haven't even started."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

I yawned and stretched, rubbing my sore leg from when I had fallen off of a stalagmite in the Dark Cave earlier that night. I glanced, at my clock, which read 4:37, and lay back down to go to sleep. Fortunately, it was Sunday. Unfortunately, it was the last day of Thanksgiving break and I would have to get up early tomorrow.

"Ugh," I groaned a little as I rolled over on something hard. It turned out to be a rubber ball, one of Ember's. I took it out from under me and threw it across the room. It hit the door and bounced as it landed.

I burrowed into the blanket, trying to get warmer and fall asleep. I blinked my eyes, having trouble sleeping. As soon as I blinked again, I realized something was wrong.

• • •

I was standing in a cave, kind of like the one in the Nightmare Realm, but this one was different. Ice coated everything, from the biggest rock to the smallest pebble. The ice radiated sort of a silvery bluish light, and the cave didn't feel evil like the one in the Nightmare Realm.

"Wisteria." A voice echoed around me, sounding male, young, a bit British, and less threatening than any of the Dark Cave residents. "The one who holds the secret of water. With the spirit of the rushing rapids and the calm tide, all at once. Come and find me."

"Who are you?" I asked, trying not to sound suspicious, but it came out like that anyways. I cleared my throat. "And what is this, "Secret of Water" you're talking about?"

"That will be revealed soon." The British voice faded away and I was alone in the icy cave. The dream shifted and I saw Eagle, yelling at a little pale boy with whitish blonde hair and very light blue eyes.

"What are you doing with that?" Eagle demanded, his voice scathing.

The boy didn't even flinch. "What, this? It's a magazine. Don't you have those here? Or is it an non-magical person thing?" The boy's voice matched the one in my other dream of the icy cavern. His eyes were the exact same color of the light coming from the ice.

"I don't care what it is! What are you doing with it?" Eagle repeated, sounding even more threatening behind his black cloak.

"Um, let me see... Reading it. Duh. What else am I supposed to do with it? That's what magazines are for." The boy rolled his eyes bravely.

"You're really testing it, Elliott. I would be careful if I were you." Eagle's voice got even more menacing. Suddenly, the colors blurred and swirled.

• • •

I was back in my dorm room, all alone and without any evil, cloaked, animal-named freaks.

"Elliott?" I wondered aloud. Could this be what the prophecy meant when it said, one already stolen? I shook my head to clear it and stretched again, knocking over a vase. It landed on the floor and shattered.

"Dang it!" I yelled. When I got up, I tripped and fell, luckily missing the shattered porcelain, and banged my foot on the bed frame.

"Ow!" I exclaimed as the door opened. Blue stepped into my room.

"Are you okay?!" She asked me, seeing the broken vase and me on the floor.

"Never better," I answered through gritted teeth. I heard a soft thump behind me, and remembered that I had left Ember out for the night. She licked my head and padded over to my foot. She licked the place where it had actually started to bleed, and, unbelievably, the scratch went away.

I stared at my tiger in wonder. "How did you do that?" Not expecting an answer, I added, "Good girl." She purred at the praise and began to chase a fly that had somehow gotten in the room.

"How'd you sleep?" Blue asked me, holding her hand out. I took it and hauled myself off the floor, my foot no longer hurting.

"Um... Besides the visit to the Dark Cave, pretty good. I mean, I fell off a rock, but I'm okay. I guess I'm not very coordinated this morning." I laughed without humor.

"I had a dream too. Some British kid was being yelled at by a scary grim reaper dude..." Blue said.

"Same!" I burst out, then collected myself. "Me too," I said, more calm.

"Hmm. I wonder if anyone else had it," Blue's gaze became distant.

I waved my hand rapidly in front of her face. She snapped out of her daze. "Well... How did yours go?" I asked her.

"Well I was in a glowing blue cave. I should get a place like that someday. Anyways, I heard a British-sounding voice that said,'Skye, the one who holds the secret of earth. With the spirit of flexible bamboo and a strong mountain. Come and find me.' Then there was a guy yelling at a boy about our age, maybe a bit older." Blue finished.

I nodded. "Mine was similar. He said, 'Wisteria, the one who holds the secret of water. Personality of raging rapids and calm tide... Blah, blah, blah. But everything else was the same."

"Hopefully everyone gets home soon." Blue said. "We're gonna need to talk about this."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

After Blue left, I looked at the clock again. It was almost time for the school to send out the transportation for the students who had left for Thanksgiving break. The transportation were shadow wolves, tame wolves that could disappear into the shadows and end up teleporting wherever they wanted to go. Apparently, the headmaster had asked the king to help him with the issue if getting the kids back to school fast.

I put the book I was reading down and looked at the floor where Ember had killed the fly. She was in dormant form.

I heard a weird distorted kind of noise behind me and a shadow wolf appeared, along with Diamond.

"Thanks!" She patted the wolf's head. The black creature wagged it's tail slightly in return and dissolved into the shadows.

"Hey, Diamond," I said, "How was your break?"

"Oh, great! My cousin Charlie is getting so big! He just turned four a couple months ago." Diamond grinned and then flopped down on her bed. "I'm so tired."

I heard yet another knock on the door. I opened it, expecting to see Blue, but Luna was there instead.

"Hi. May I come in?" She asked. I let her in, wondering what this could be about. She usually just walked right in without asking.

Luna turned to Diamond. "Did she tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Diamond looked at me. At first I didn't know what Luna meant until I realized she was pointing to my diary. The lock had fallen off. Stupid 90% off Dollar General journal.

"Yeah, Luna, what are you talking about?" I said smoothly. Okay, maybe not that smooth.

"About Caleb. About the Nightmare Realm. About your dreams and visions." Luna answered. "Blue told me."

"Oh." I answered, looking down.

"Don't worry. It's okay," Diamond whispered to me, throwing a knowing glance my way.

"Well? Did she tell you?" Luna prompted, her red eyes impatient. "I have homework to catch up on."

"Yes." Diamond nodded. She tossed her wavy blonde hair and looked at Luna. "Anything else?"

"Um, nope. She you guys later." Luna headed towards the door and left.

I turned back to Diamond. "How do you know what she's talking about?" I then glanced the floor, where my diary was still laying open in the ground.

Diamond looked at the floor guiltily. "I found your diary, and I read it..." She then glanced back up at me briefly. "Sorry..."

I sighed. "It's fine, I guess." I turned around and picked the diary up. I put it up on a high shelf above my bed.

• • •

That night, I had another Dark Cave dream. This time we were going against our opposites, fire against water, light against darkness and earth against air. Apparently, no ice elements were in the Nightmare Realm. Either that, or they got the luxury of a good, painless sleep.

"Alright!" Eagle shouted as the kids gathered around him, Panther and another new guy named- after an animal, shocker- Python. "As you know, you will be fighting your opposites tonight. I will take light and darkness, Panther will be taking fire and water, and Python will be taking air and earth." With that, the cloaked man strode away, the light and dark students following him.

"Hey, Wisty!" Caleb caught up to me. I couldn't help looking at the thin scratch on his face. I hoped it would go away soon. "Ready for tonight? I'm looking forward to it." Caleb made mini flames dance in his hands, flicking in and out of the gaps between his fingers.

"Yeah. I'm...stoked." I tried for a smile. We followed Panther to the Battle Room, one of the six or seven there was. There were much more rocks then I had seen in the other room.

"Okay, you're going to be paired up now. Ella and Seth, Casey and Isabelle, Allison and George, Wisteria and Derek..."

After that, I stopped listening and gulped. Derek? I thought worriedly. I heard that he had been coming here for three years now, because he was angry and jealous of his perfect brother.

"Hey, ready?" Derek didn't wait for me to answer. He shot a massive fireball directly towards my face. I barely had time to duck, and the fire singed a bit of my hair. I enveloped the fireball in a shell of water and threw it back at him.

"Basic move," Derek grumbled, almost to himself. He evaporated the water shell, enlarged the fireball and sent it spinning around me, making it seem like there was more than one. I suddenly got dizzy, trying to gather a thin stream of water at the ball of flames. It somehow hit it, knocking it out of orbit, but not extinguishing it.

"Don't worry, I'm just warming up." I gathered two spheres of water, with the waves in them crashing over each other. Derek stared, kind of mesmerized, as I threw them at him. One of them hit him in the chest but the other one missed him by an inch or so. I didn't give him a chance to recover, but as I was gathering another large ball of waves, I felt something excruciatingly hot hit me square in the back.

"Yes, you're warmed up now." I saw Derek's face, sneering. His voice sounded distant.

"Wisty!" I heard Caleb, who sounded a million miles away, as I blacked out.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

I jolted awake, my breath coming in fast, loud, shallow breaths. My back felt like it was being stabbed and repeatedly blasted with a blowtorch. I could barely inhale, and my lungs felt dry and hollow.

Diamond sat up quickly. "Wisty! What happened?! Are you okay?!" I obviously couldn't answer, and my vision was going black around the edges.

Now Diamond's voice sounded like it panicked and calm at the same time, and was getting farther away. "Don't worry, I'll get help!"

Diamond ran out the door. My thoughts became sluggish as I heard footsteps, obviously more than one person, rush towards me. I was flipped over on my stomach, heard collective gasps, and blacked out yet again.

• • •

My dreams didn't really make sense, and all of them ended in a massive blaze. The first one was about the Dark Cave, where Derek and I stood, all alone. He smiled cruelly and his hand lit on fire, like all fire elementals can do without getting hurt. The flames grew bigger and bigger until they engulfed everything in sight.

The next one made no sense. I was at a McDonalds back in New York City and I dropped a french fry, and grease dripped off of it and sparked a flame somehow, causing another one of my dreams to end in a fire.

The third and last one was interrupted because I woke up, not in my dorm room, but in the nurse's office, which was slightly bigger than my whole apartment in New York. I tried to sit up, but a flaring pain shot up my back and made be flop back down again, while white spots danced in my vision.

"Don't strain yourself," a kind voice from behind me said. The nurse, Miss Carley, came out from behind a thin white curtain concealing another sick student. "You're going to be in pain for a while. That's quite a burn."

I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the bright lights. "What... What happened?" I asked, genuinely not knowing what was going on.

"That's what I've been trying to figure out. That's not a typical burn. Only a skilled fire elemental could have left an injury like that." After Miss Carley said that, memories rushed into my head one after another like tidal waves crashing on shore.

"What actually happened, dear?" The nurse gently prompted me.

"I...can't remember." I looked down at the crisp white sheets in the bed I was laying in.

"Okay. Sometimes people have a bit of a memory shock from these types of injuries." Miss Carley paused as there was a knock on the door. She opened it and then smiled at me. "You have visitors, if you're ready."

I forced myself to sit up a little bit. "Yeah, I'm ready," I grimaced against the pain. Diamond, Luna, Blue, Alex, Caleb and Ben came through the door and crouched down next to my bed. I noticed Caleb had a minor burn next to his left eye.

"What happened?" Ben was the first to speak.

"Yeah, tell us everything," Blue agreed.

"Go on, Wisty. Tell us!" Alex and Caleb said simultaneously as I hesitated. I finally proceeded to explain the Nightmare Realm and Dark Cave for Alex and Ben, who didn't know about it, and then told the rest of the story. I told them about every detail of my fight with Derek and how I felt when I woke up that night, careful to keep my voice quiet so the nurse didn't hear me.

"Wisty, you need to stop going." Luna looked at me with her intense, blood red eyes. "You're going to end up killing yourself." The last part was obviously meant as a joke, but it made the mood even darker.

"Luna is right!" Diamond agreed. "Wisty, look at your back... Well, you probably can't. Sorry. That was stupid. Anyway, we had to take a picture for healing reasons or whatever..." Diamond took out her phone and showed me a picture. There was a large, dark red spot in the dead center of my back, with slightly lighter red scars surrounding it. The picture itself made me feel sick, and knowing that it was on my own back made me retch.

"You guys! Okay, you need to leave. You're obviously bothering the poor girl!" Miss Carley said as if I wasn't there and listening. "Come back later. She needs to rest."

The nurse made me lay back down and take a nap. This sleep was fortunately dreamless, and I woke up at about 3:30 from eleven o'clock. I stretched and yawned, cringing as I sat up. I looked at the beside table, where there were a bunch of cards, one card from all of the teachers who signed it, and a few from my water elemental friends.

Then, I realized there was a pile of schoolwork next to all of the cards. Most of the papers were from Non-Magical Folk, and I remembered we had a test and some new notes to take. I groaned, reaching for a pencil, and got to work.

After a few minutes, Miss Carley came over to my bed and handed me a glass of a transparent red liquid.

Thinking it was Hawaiian Punch, I took it and drank it.

It was NOT Hawaiian Punch.

I barely swallowed the drink, gagging after I swallowed it. "What is this?!"

Miss Carley smiled. "Something to help the pain, to help keep away infection, so you can go back to your homework now, if you like." Then she walked away to help another sick person.

I choked down the rest of the contents and looked back at my homework. I had already finished the Non-Magical Folk test, which was multiple choice on famous US landmarks, and started to look at the notes Mr. Smiths copied down for me. I read those and moved on the my other homework, which I got done within two hours. I was kind of miffed, two hours is way too long to do homework.

"You're visitors are here again, do you want to see them?" Miss Carley walked up to my bed. I looked over her shoulder to see everyone that visited me earlier standing in the doorway.

"Yes, let them in, please." I nodded as my six friends came pouring in the room.

"Are you feeling better?" Caleb asked. His golden eyes were full if concern.

"A bit," I answered truthfully.

"When do you think you'll be able to come back?" Diamond asked.

"I'm not sure."

"Mrs. Clare was asking about you today. She's wondering what happened." Alex dropped his voice. "I told her that you couldn't remember."

"She obviously didn't really buy it, but left us alone." Ben nodded.

"If she wasn't so nosy, she probably would have found out sooner or later." Luna rolled her eyes jokingly. I grinned, glad to have such great friends.

"Guys, I really appreciate you coming here, and I'm glad you did. Really. But the Hawaiian Punch stuff I just drank that wasn't Hawaiian Punch is making me feel sick." This wasn't a lie, I was starting to feel queasy. Miss Carley told me this might happen. "Do you guys mind if I rest a bit more? I don't mean to be rude, I just don't want to throw up all over you guys." I joked.

"Sure thing, it's okay. See you later, Wisty!" Blue waved as everyone else said goodbye and left. I laid down again and fell asleep easily, despite the queasiness in my stomach.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

A couple days later, I was still in the infirmary. My burns weren't healing very well, and the flesh was still all pink and gross. My friends visited me every day, bringing me my homework and candy and cards from other people.

"Have you been to the Dark Cave recently?" Caleb was asking me quietly. Only he was here this time, because everyone else but Ben, who had a bad cold, stayed after class for extra credit.

"Only once since the incident, and that was last night." My voice was soft too. "Derek was there. He threw me a smug look but he didn't say anything. And Eagle gave me someone easy to fight, which surprised me, but yeah..."

"Wisty. I'm pretty sure it isn't a choice, but for the time being, don't go. Until your back heals, I'm not sure you'll be okay." Caleb shook his head, then, realizing what he said, he quickly tried to correct himself, "I mean, you're perfectly capable, and a really good fighter, but I was just thinking your back would hurt..."

I laughed. "It's okay. I understand, and yes, my back does hurt whenever I sit up, and also when I fight, needless to say."

Caleb looked at the nearby clock on the crisp white walls of the nurse's office, or nurse's infirmary, rather.

"Oh, sorry Wisty, I have to go. I have a bunch of homework." Caleb turned to leave but then apparently remembered something. "Everyone else felt bad about not coming. Luna, Diamond and Blue got you this," it was a small box of candy and a note. Caleb went on, "Alex and Ben got you this." It was a 'Get Well Soon' card.

"Tell them I said thank you. Bye, Caleb!" I called after him. He turned back, smiled and waved, and then left.

I was hungry, so I opened the box of candy. I noticed one of the chocolates were missing, so I looked at the note. It was in Luna's swirly and neat handwriting:

Hey Wisty,

I know you're injured, and we got this candy because we have work to catch up on and extra credit to complete for the rest of the week, but I got hungry and ate one of the chocolates. Sorry.

Get better,

Luna.

Ah. I should have known it was Luna. She seemed like she was always hungry and had a serious sweet tooth. I was just surprised she only ate one.

Mrs. Hart had dropped all of my homework from every class off earlier that day with all of the other teacher's "best and sincerest wishes," quote unquote. She was more creative and actually talked to me on her lunch. It was surprisingly exhausting to keep the lie that I didn't remember what happened up.

I grabbed my work, but before I could start it, I had another, and unfortunately very badly timed, Nightmare Realm vision.

"Hello, Wisteria," Eagle said to me, his ever-present hooded cloak on. Panther, Python, and other probably animal-named people in cloaks accompanied him.

"What's going on? Where's everybody else?"

"Oh, they're in the other rooms of this cave," a Dark Cave resident I didn't recognize answered. She was actually a girl, and the only one I've come across in the Nightmare Realm besides the students. Her voice was thick and rich, like honey, but sounded more sinister than even Panther.

Eagle opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a pained wail coming from the other rooms in the cave.

"What was that?!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, someone probably just either got severely injured, pinned down or killed by a permanent resident here," Eagle said carelessly, like that happened frequently, with a dismissive flick of his wrist. "Anyways, this doesn't happen very often, but you're a great fighter. A natural, even. And we know you've gotten injured by someone who's got a little more than two more years of experience than you. So, we're giving you a sick leave."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Just to clarify, I asked,"Wait, really?"

Panther, Python, and the girl laughed.

"No." Eagle was chuckling as well. "Just because you're hurt doesn't mean you get to slack off and turn into a weak, soft slug in you're bed in the infirmary.

"However," Eagle continued, "we have decided that we have...taken a liking to you. From now until you are mostly healed, not all the way, but mostly, we will be teaching you how to get over your injury."

"Oh. Well, it's better than getting my skin burned off," I grumbled.

"Be grateful. We could just kill you," Python snarled.

"Calm down. We can't do that, and you know it." Panther growled back at him.

"Why not? Did the Defeated One-" Python started, but the girl kicked him to make him shut his big mouth.

"We start in two nights. Now, go back to whatever you were doing before you came here." As Eagle was speaking, I could feel my physical form fading. In the blink of an eye, I was still in the boring, sterile, all-white room. With a quick shake of my head, I got started on the homework Mrs. Hart brought me. After I finished, I lay back in my shockingly comfortable bed, and thought about how Eagle was going to teach me how to "get over my injury."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

My question wasn't left unanswered for long. Two nights later, as I drifted off to sleep still in the infirmary, Eagle and the girl I saw in my other dream met me in the Nightmare Realm.

"Welcome, Wisteria." Eagle greeted me. "I understand you haven't met my right hand man, er, woman, Nightshade.

"Yes, I know you're thinking she doesn't have an animal name. Not everyone here does, but most do. As soon as an... Ambitious and powerful spirit," Eagle glanced at Nightshade, who chuckled knowingly, "dies, they come here and get a new identity."

"Oh." I didn't know how to respond, but I knew I had to say something.

"Enough with the history lesson. Let's teach you how to produce strong magic- I mean fight- with your burned back." Nightshade said.

I wondered what she was going to say, but I was kind of scared to ask. This girl was a little scary. Some glossy, jet-black hair stuck out of the hood of her cloak. Everyone's cloak here masked their faces and went all the way down to the damp, lichen-spotted, rocky cave floor. Nightshade's cloak was even longer and trailed behind her. The hood was connected to the cloak with gunmetal gray clasps. Her hands, the only things the cloak allowed me to see, had many tattoos on them and her nails were painted as black as her hair. Not to mention her voice, which sounded like cruel nails on a chalkboard when she was impatient. Which was most of the time.

"What are you waiting for?" She barked. "Come on!" I quickly followed her, almost flinching from her harsh tone.

"Here we are," Eagle announced, gesturing around him. I had never been in this room before. The lichen here glowed slightly, giving off an eerie light. The walls were perfectly flat, with no rocks sticking off. The floor was also not as rocky as some of the battle rooms.

"What are we doing first?" I asked, trying to sound braver than I felt.

Eagle turned to look at me. Of course, I couldn't see his face, but he could see mine. "First, we are going to see how much you can push yourself without collapsing in pain. Ready?"

Ready? No. I thought wryly, even though I knew if I said this out loud I would most likely get killed. Or even more injured.

"Go."

Nightshade unexpectedly lunged at me, air blasting at me relentlessly, almost knocking me down. The wind was cold and bitter, and I was pretty sure I would get frostbite from just standing around like an idiot.

I pulled water from the lichen around me, and sent it rushing towards Nightshade. The current of water ripped through the cold air, ice forming on the end of the jet of lichen water, and spiraled so Nightshade couldn't pinpoint which direction it was coming from. The frozen-tipped jet hit her in the back of the head, making her instinctively raise her hand to where she got hit.

"You fool!" She hissed, rapid firing more blasts of arctic air towards me. One hit me square in the face, another hit me kneecap and another hit my stomach. I did sort of an aerial-cartwheel thing, shooting a blast of water towards Nightshade. She easily dodged it, and, while I was vulnerable, hit me in the back with an extra fast mini whirlwind.

I gasped in pain. The air had hit me exactly in the middle of my burn, where the dark red spot was. This was the part that was failing to heal, the tenderest and most painful part of the burn.

I staggered and almost fell but somehow, I stood up straight and ignored the searing pain. "I'm not done yet." I mumbled, shooting small waves hurtling at my experienced opponent. She made a sort of shield of air, freezing the water in contact and causing it to drop and shatter on the ground.

"Really?" Nightshade sneered at me. She thrust her arms out and the air shield came spiraling towards me. I jumped backwards, flipping sideways, but couldn't stick the landing and flopped down on the stone floor. Of course I hit the ground directly on my back.

Nightshade sauntered over to me, like she was all that and a dead bag of chips, and planted her foot on my chest. "I'm not done yet." She mocked me in a high voice.

"Well done, both of you. I've never seen anyone last that long in a battle with Nightshade. And by "last" I mean "survive." Eagle nodded approvingly.

She took her foot off me and turned her back to me, leaving me struggling to get up. As soon as I was firmly on both feet, Eagle beckoned me over to him. He showed me how to move without using my back so much. After a couple of hours, I was able to do two moves without falling.

"You may leave now." Eagle told me. I nodded respectfully and decided to explore the cave. As I walked out of that room, I heard Nightshade and Eagle talking.

"Yes, her magic will be useful for bringing the Defeated One back to full power." Eagle was saying.

"And her determination will help too. Hopefully taking her magic away doesn't kill her right away. And I hope everyone else's magic is good enough to help the Defeated One too." Nightshade agreed. I gasped, willing myself to wake up. I had to warn all of my friends, as soon as possible.

• • •

A couple hours later, Caleb came to visit me. Surprisingly, Ben was with him. He looked better than he did a few days ago. He must have been getting over his cold.

"Hi, Wisty! What's up?" Ben asked. With a serious look on my face, I gestured for the boys to come over to my bed. They crouched down around me as I told them about what happened in the Dark Cave and how I heard Eagle and Nightshade talking after they thought I'd left.

"Wow." Caleb's face turned almost as red as his hair. "I can't believe I didn't see this before..."

"Wait, what? Caleb goes, too?" Ben's black and red eyes darted from me to Caleb.

"Oh. Um, yeah. I go too." Caleb nodded, looking down at the floor. "This is my second year."

"And you didn't tell us?! Why didn't you-" Ben exclaimed.

"That isn't important now," I interrupted sharply. "Didn't you hear the part about the Defeated One rising? Our magic is going to be taken away from us to help him. And, I'm not sure if you missed this part too, but it may kill us!" I whisper-shouted.

"I heard it. I just don't understand..." Ben trailed off.

"It's okay. I don't really understand how it works either. All I know is we need to stop going." Caleb said.

"I don't think we can," I replied honestly. "But, listen. You guys have to tell everyone else when you see then next."

"We will." Ben and Caleb promised in unison.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

"Wisty." I heard a voice call to me from the darkness that spread as far as the eye could see.

As soon as the person appeared in front of me, I gaped, my mouth opening and closing like I was a fish. I couldn't form any words. I just couldn't believe who it was. I wanted to, with all my heart and soul, but I knew it was just a dream. The first proper, non-prophecy delivering dream since I had started going to the Nightmare Realm.

"M-mom?" I asked, blinking as tears threatened to spill out of my eyes.

"We can't talk long. Come with me." There was an urgency in my mom's voice that made me follow her, even if my heart was racing with apprehension and anxiety.

"Where are we going?" I asked her, my voice echoing unexpectedly off the invisible walls.

"Try to keep it down," my mom shushed me gently, then continued. "I'm going to show you something. Eagle and Nightshade are wondering where you are, but I think they can wait. This is important."

I opened my mouth to ask how she knew about the magic drive for the Defeated One, but decided against it. Mother hallucination dream spirits had a right to have secrets.

We finally stopped at a place that looked like the rest of my dream world, but it was much brighter. Floating lights bobbed around like Will-O-Wisps. They gave off a comforting silvery blue light. With a start, I remembered the ice cave where Elliott showed me his flashback thing.

"After I died," my mom told me as I winced, "I somehow became a sort of messenger for Elliott, because the element of Ice has the closest connection to the spirit world. I'm not sure why; it's just like that. Anyway, he wanted me to show you this."

The dream changed as my mother was taken away from me again. I was back in another memory that Elliott was sharing with me. The bobbing lights disappeared and the darkness lightened naturally.

I was standing in a room painted pale gray. Elliott was sitting on the floor, still reading his magazine. Eagle approached him, his ever-present hooded cloak on.

"Elliott. I'm going to ask you one more time," Eagle growled, putting threatening emphasis on one, "tell me who the others are. You cannot lie to me and say you have no idea."

"Okay, I won't. I have no clue. I'm not lying when I say I don't know! The only two you know are Wisteria and Caleb, and that's two more than I know. I'm sorry I can't help you, but you can't get information from me that I don't know." Elliott looked right up at Eagle, who was probably enraged on the inside, but he kept his cool on the outside.

"Whatever. I don't have time to deal with you right now. I have a Nightmare Realm training session to get back to. Don't freeze anything." Eagle's voice sounded annoyed.

"You tell me that every time," Elliott mumbled, as Eagle left with his black cloak billowing behind him. "Okay, Wisty. You can come out."

"You know I'm here? Eagle doesn't seem to." I cocked my head inquiringly.

"Like your mom told you, Ice is the closest element to the spirit world. I can summon your spiritual form here as well as everyone else's." Elliott answered.

"So you do know who everyone else is."

"Yes and no. When I talk to Eagle, I can't remember. But when he's gone, I can." Elliott shrugged. "I don't know why. But, you're waking up. Bye!"

I waved to Elliott as the colors swirled and I was awake back in the infirmary. I sat up, grimacing against the now dulling pain. I was glad to know that the gross Hawaiian Punch stuff was working.

Miss Carley came over and informed me that I was leaving the infirmary in two days and that my wound should be mostly healed by then. I almost broke into a happy dance. This place was boring and I haven't had the chance to talk to people very much. Crazy as it sounds, I was looking forward to going back to class.

About fifteen minutes later, all of my friends came in. It was Saturday, so I had been here for almost a week.

"Hey, Wisty! How are you?" Diamond surprised me with a hug.

"I'm better. I'll be back on Monday." I smiled.

"Awesome." Luna grinned back as I nodded, unsure of what else to say.

"So you're healing well, then?" Ben asked.

"Yeah. It still hurts a little though."

"Well, that's a given. Have you," Blue dropped her voice. "Been back to the Dark Cave?"

"Um, yeah. Twice, I think. Maybe three times. I can't remember." I answered truthfully. Time was weird in the Nightmare Realm. I couldn't remember how many times I've been there.

"I thought we said you shouldn't go anymore." Caleb's gaze softened. He didn't sound like he was accusing me, he just sounded...concerned. Like he cared about me.

"Well, I don't think it works like that. Besides, I haven't exactly been fighting. I've been practicing with Eagle on how to use moves that don't require my back very much." I told my friends.

"At least you aren't hurting yourself that much." Alex tried for a smile.

I didn't say that, I thought to myself.

"Oh, look. Miss Carley is coming over here." Luna jerked her head in the direction the nurse was coming from. She was holding the gross Hawaiian Punch stuff.

I groaned inwardly. Just what I needed, some disgusting tropical fruit juice to brighten my day.

"Here you go, dear." Miss Carley handed the cup to me. I drank it in one quick swig and shuddered at the gross taste. I handed the cup back to her while trying not to gag.

"Looks delicious," Blue said to me, trying not to laugh.

"Quiet, you. You have no idea what that stuff tastes like." I teased, laughter sparkling in my eyes.

"So, we told everyone about what you heard in the Nightmare Realm." Ben glanced around to see if Miss Carley was near.

Everyone's expressions darkened, including mine. "Oh yeah. So what are we going to do about it?" I wondered aloud.

"Not sure," Diamond answered, looking grim for the first time I've seen. Usually she would have a positive and helpful idea, but asking them nicely not to take our magic and kill us probably wouldn't cut it this time.

"Me neither. I don't have any ideas." Alex shrugged. Everyone kind of murmured agreement. I didn't know what to say or do about it either.

"Maybe we should kind of wait it out," Blue suggested.

"Good idea! Wisty and I could see what we can find out by going there and listening to conversations, while we're battling." Caleb's face lit up instantly. I nodded, thinking this idea only had a few flaws: Eagle obviously had to keep this a secret and would probably kill to keep it, and Nightshade probably wouldn't be too keen on people knowing the secret either. I knew she was taking it easy on me last time we fought, and she still took me down pretty easily. I was scared of what she and Eagle could do if they were actually trying.

• • •

On Monday, I was back in my dorm and playing with Ember after school. I had just called my dad to tell him what happened. To my disappointment but not surprise, he didn't sound too worried about me. He thought I was still not good enough because I was a water elemental and not an air one.

Diamond was in the dorm too, doing homework with Max. At first I had no idea Phoenixes were so smart, even baby ones. And Max was even able to write by burning words into the paper without setting it on fire.

I looked at Ember. "Can you do that?" I asked her quietly. She gazed up at me with her big green eyes and shook her striped head lightly. I was surprised, not expecting a response from my pet tiger cub.

"Done! Thank you, Max." Diamond smiled at her fiery bird, who chirped happily as an answer. She ruffled his head feathers lightly and he flew over to his perch near the door.

"How's your back?" She asked me, looking at me with concerned blue eyes.

"Good. It doesn't hurt as much anymore. Thanks for asking." I answered. I turned back to Ember, who was batting at a piece of string I was holding.

"I'm glad you're back. I was really quiet and boring without you around." Diamond said.

"Aw, thanks! I was bored in the infirmary! Can you believe animals weren't allowed?" I rolled my eyes in fake annoyance.

Diamond laughed. "Well, it's getting late. We should probably go to sleep." I looked at the clock as Diamond said this, it was 9:15 and there was school tomorrow.

"Okay," I agreed. "Good night, Diamond!" I put Ember in dormant form.

"Night, Wisty." Diamond put Max in his dormant form. I settled down for my first good night's sleep in my dorm room since I got injured.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

After I woke up, it took me a minute to realize I was back in my dorm room. The light colored hardwood floors were do different to those in the infirmary, which were enchanted clean white tile. The tile instantly cleaning itself is something was spilled or needed to be swept. The walls were different too; the dorm's were a shade of light orangey brown, while the nurse's room was painted white. If it were my choice I would have painted the walls in both rooms a more fun color, but whatever.

"Morning, Wisty! How'd you sleep?" Diamond asked me, yawning as she sat up.

"Surprisingly well," I responded. "No Dark Cave."

"Well that's good!"

"Yeah. Definitely a plus." I stretched and swung my legs around. I was excited for Water Magic 101 today. Well, more than usual, today we were learning how to... Well, I would have to find out. Mrs. Hart said it was a surprise. Unfortunately, that class wasn't until after lunch.

"Hey, guys!" Blue and Luna were coming out of their dorm room and were on their way to breakfast with us. Luna waved, smiling a bit.

"Hi!" Diamond said back and we walked down the two flights of stairs together.

Today, breakfast was English muffins and bacon. I quickly scarfed them down. Just as I finished, Caleb and Alex sat down. To my surprise, Ben sat down too. I had always noticed there was an empty seat but no one else ever sat with us.

"Hi, Ben. What's up?" Luna asked him as he took the empty seat next to her.

"Nothing much, you?" He kissed her lightly on the cheek.

Luna didn't answer but smiled. She and Ben engaged in a conversation that I honestly didn't care about, something about Selena being a future queen. Even if I did want to say something I wouldn't know what. I didn't know Luna's older sister.

Breakfast was soon over and Caleb slipped a note into my hand, flashed me a smile, and left for his first class. Wondering what the note said, I opened it as I was walking to History of Magic.

Wisty,

If you want to, meet me in the courtyard after school. There's something I need to talk to you about.

-Caleb

I sat down in the History of Magic classroom, pondering the note. I stared off into space, thinking about what he wanted to talk to me about. Before long, the bell to start class rang, ripping me back to reality.

"Hello, class!" Mr. Alls greeted the class. He was obviously in a rush; papers were flying behind him and he clutched the ones that didn't fall out of his hands against his chest.

"Hi, Mr. Alls," the class mumbled halfheartedly.

"Well, you can tell it's Tuesday!" He said cheerfully. "Today we will be watching a movie," the class cheered, "about how the water element was created." The class groaned.

"Great," I whispered under my breath. I already researched this while I was out of class, because there was nothing else to do in the boring infirmary. Since we didn't have to take notes, I could just watch the movie and pretend to be interested.

"Water is one of the most essential magical elements on this planet. It began when earth, air and light clashed, which was also when fire and ice were created. Darkness played a part in creating all of the elements..." The movie began. I zoned out and was brought back when the bell rang again.

"We'll finish the movie tomorrow. Bye!" Mr. Alls dismissed us.

I walked to Monster Class with one of my water elemental friends, Lila. She just moved here and I was helping her settle in.

"What's Monster Class like?" Lila asked me, worry glittering in her deep brown eyes.

"Don't worry about it. They don't throw you in front of dangerous creatures. They only teach us about them and tell us why not to go near them." I assured her.

"Oh. Okay. Good." Lila sighed in relief. I giggled at her reaction, and she joined in.

"Hello class. Today, we're going to be taking notes. Don't get too excited," Mr. Ridley teased us as our faces went from mildly excited to bored and a few of us groaned.

"Anyway," Mr. Ridley continued, "we'll be learning about ancient monsters. Get out your notebooks, please." As we did what he told us, he wrote 'Ancient Monsters' in large green letters on the board.

As Mr. Ridley talked about different monsters from ancient folklore, the class wrote them down. By the time the forty-five minute class was over, we had notes on the Chimera, Medusa, Baba Yaga, and the Loch Ness Monster. When the bell rang, Mr. Ridley dismissed us and I walked to History of Neria with Carla. We didn't talk much anymore but she walked next to me anyways.

I took my seat in History of Neria, with Mrs. O'Neil.

"Today, we're going to be learning about something you guys have probably all heard in the news and in Mr. Alls class." She paused for effect. "The Defeated One."

A few people looked warily from one another and then to Mrs. O'Neil. I shuddered quietly and hoped no one saw me. Mrs. O'Neil started saying things about the Defeated One I already knew, like how he was rumored to be rising and how he died fighting the king himself.

I didn't learn anything new in History of Neria that day, but the rest of the day before Water Magic 101 went by in a blur.

• • •

The only interesting part was Water Magic 101, where Mrs. Hart had a special class planned for us indeed.

"All of us know the different forms of matter, right? Solid, liquid and gas. Well, water and air elementals both have the ability to take the form of a gas, in a way. No, Kevin, not that kind of gas. Anyways, let's go outside and I will show you how to do it." Mrs. Hart gestured for us to follow her out of the room and outside in the school's courtyard.

"It's so hot," I heard someone mumble.

"That's exactly why I picked today to do this. Water evaporates easier in heat." With this, Mrs. Hart's form swirled until there was nothing there but an extremely transparent cloud of mist.

"Whoa!" A bunch of people exclaimed around me. I was impressed too, but my mind was whirling, trying to figure out how she did that.

The cloud twisted in the air and solidified, and Mrs. Hart was standing before us in non-mist form again.

She bowed in fake pride. "Thank you, thank you very much," she joked. "Now it's your turn. Just imagine your body is turning into mist and concentrate. You probably won't get it on the first, or even second or third, try."

I closed my eyes, focusing. I tried to imagine my physical form turning into a free-floating near-invisible cloud of transparent mist. Suddenly, I got the feeling of walking through a thick fog spreading from my toes to my head. When I opened my eyes, I saw the ground below me and my vision was swimming. Like, literally distorted. Everything I could "see" was paler than when I saw it in human vision, and constantly moving like the reflections in a pool.

"Very good, Wisty!" I could just hear Mrs. Hart. Her voice sounded distant and like she was under water.

I imagined my misty self turning into my human self, and about five seconds later I was standing on solid ground again. My vision took a second to adjust. When it did, I smiled at Mrs. Hart and said, "Thanks."

Every time I practiced, the transitions between gas and solid got easier. My vision in cloud form was never perfect, but it got better and I could actually make put words better.

"Okay class. It's time to head back inside." Mrs. Hart called to us. I willed my mist cloud self to move toward her and then I changed back, following the rest of the class back inside.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

After my nap in Non-Magical Folk, learning about the lost city of Atlantis in History of Water Magic, and then presenting our finished projects in Mythical Creatures, I put my stuff in my dorm quickly before meeting Caleb in the courtyard.

"Where are you going?" Diamond asked me as I was about to leave.

"To meet Caleb in the courtyard. He said he wanted to talk to me." I answered, giving her the note he sent me to read.

Her face darkened slightly, or so I thought. I wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light or something until she started talking to me.

"Be careful." She told me. "He doesn't exactly think girls are equals."

I nodded, not saying anything, then waved goodbye and quickly left. I walked down the gray hallway, my boots thumping on the hardwood floor. I trekked down the stairs along with a few others who were probably meeting Mrs. Clare after school to finish their projects. I turned a corner, opened the main door, and stepped outside.

"Hello, students!" I heard Mrs. Clare calling. It was a really nice day; the sun was shining and it was the early summer type of warm, even though it was the end of November, with only wisps of cloud in the bright blue sky. You could hear wild Phoenixes singing their songs. As I walked out a little bit into the forest, I heard Caleb call to me.

"Wisty! Over here!" He waved frantically as if he thought I didn't see or hear him.

"Hey, Caleb! What did you want to talk to me about?" I asked casually.

"Oh, yeah! Well, first, I have to show you something." He smiled and gestured for me to follow him. I did, but he stopped at a place in the woods that was pretty, no doubt, but looked like the rest of the forest. There was a very big stone wall was in front of him. The wall looked abandoned, and vines were growing up its sheer face. Caleb just stood there, and I wasn't sure what he was doing.

After a minute or so of just waiting there, I said, "Well, this is a pretty nice tree. But, seriously, what did you want to show me?"

"Just... One more second," Caleb responded. As he said this, a part of the wall disintegrated, revealing a hole that was about seven feet tall from the ground up. He turned around. "That's what I wanted to show you." He grinned as I gaped at the hole. He stepped into the wall and I followed him, not sure where it led.

"Hello? Caleb?" I asked, my voice echoing in the dark interior of the stone wall.

"I'm right here." As he said this, a ball of fire appeared, bouncing around in the darkness and casting off light so we could actually see. The fireball touched me a couple of times, but it wasn't hot and didn't burn anything. The first time, though, I didn't realize this, so I had a slight spazz attack.

Suddenly, there was natural sunlight at the end of the tunnel. I knew we were almost out of the wall. As soon as we were right up to where the wall stopped and light filtered in through small cracks, another entryway opened up in the solid wall. The fireball extinguished itself. I stepped out the wall after Caleb exited.

As soon as I came out of the dark wall and into the sunlight, my eyes took a second to adjust. After they did, I gasped at what I was looking at.

I was standing in a park-sized stretch of rolling hills with streams coursing through them, with bushes and flowers dotting the ground. There was a thick dirt path that led to a gray metal bench the glinted silver in the light. But the most breathtaking sight were the wisteria trees-so many of them-swaying in the breeze along the path. The purple willow-like trees let in the dappled sunlight through their fully bloomed branches, which somehow formed a dome over the path on both sides and bench so the shade and sun were balanced. I looked at Caleb, who was grinning at me-was that affection and pride in his eyes?-looking kind of sheepish.

"Did...did you make this?" I asked, spellbound.

"Well, yes and no. I found the entrance and I got my parents to help me with the trees and Mr. Jay to help with the streams. He's the lunch guy, a water elemental, and is friends with my dad." Caleb answered. "My parents and I are cool now, they don't mind have a fire elemental around them anymore." He smiled at me.

"Wow." I looked around again, surprised there were no singing rabbits. This place looked like something straight out of a Disney cartoon. "I love it." I whispered.

"Good. To be honest, I was afraid you weren't going to come." Caleb looked relieved.

"What? Why?"

"Um, I've changed in the past couple of years. Before I came here, I used to be, well, not so nice Diamond. Or any girls, really." He told me, looking genuinely guilty.

I remembered what Diamond said earlier. "That's okay. You're different now and that's what matters."

"Okay." Caleb relaxed. "Now, here. Let's sit." He gestured to the bench.

"Alright." I sat down, expecting the bench to be cold, but it was comfortably warm from the exposure to the sun.

When I looked over at Caleb, he looked kind of shy. He asked me what if I'd found anything out about the Nightmare Realm lately. I said that I haven't been going a lot, and then I told him about my dream with my mom and Elliott. He nodded and said he didn't hear anything about their sinister plans either.

I checked my watch. "Oh, It's almost five o'clock! We'll be late for dinner soon." I got up off the bench and walked with Caleb side by side to the stone wall of the secret garden. He placed his hand on the wall, and the wall around his hand glowed orange. The "door" opened and we stepped into the dark tunnel again. He got another ball of fire floating so we could see and we talked about the best and worst classes of our day until we got up to the two separate staircases. One led up to the boy's dorms and one to the girl's.

"See you in a few minutes," he said, and whisked up the stairs.

"Bye!" I called after him. I ran up the stairs to my own dorm, eager to tell my friends what happened.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

"Tell us more!" Diamond was bouncing while sitting on her bed in our dorm. Luna was sitting on a pillow and Blue was sitting on the floor. I offered her a cushion or something but she said she was fine on the ground.

"That's all there really is. He just asked me about the Nightmare Realm." I answered truthfully.

"Woah. A secret garden?! That's so cool!" Blue exclaimed while Luna nodded, excitement clear in her crimson eyes.

"I know! At first I had no idea what was going on but once I realized where I was standing I was...just...," I struggled to find the right word. "Amazed. Spellbound. It was beautiful."

"It sounds like it was." Luna answered. She looked at the clock, which read 4:53. "Well, it's almost time for dinner. C'mon, guys, we should probably go down."

"Okay, let's go!" Diamond leapt off her bed and skipped downstairs to the dining hall.

Caleb and Alex were running late. I wondered what was taking them so long. If they waited any longer, the Chinese food would get cold. For some reason, though, the scholae elementorum wasn't serving any duck. I shook my head, my thoughts drifting back to where Alex and Caleb were.

• • •

A few days later, it was Thursday. We were having a test in Non-Magical Folk, so apparently my brain decided to have a dream right then and there.

"Skye, Luna, Diamond, Wisteria, Alex and Caleb. Welcome!" Elliott was standing in the room he was always held captive in. There was only one thing different: the gray walls were tinted pale blue with frost.

"Elliott?" Luna asked.

"You've seen him too?" Caleb asked her.

Elliott decided to answer for Luna. "You've all had dreams with me in it. I'm sorry if you were doing something important, but now was the best time to have you here."

"Why?" Diamond cocked her head in question.

"Eagle isn't here right now, and he won't be back for a while. I called you here to tell you guys something important." Elliott stared off into space, his silvery blue eyes distant.

"Well?" Alex prompted.

"What?" Elliott snapped back into the dream reality.

"You were going to tell us something." Luna rolled her eyes impatiently.

"Oh. Right. Well, as you know, you all have to find me, and the Secrets of your elements. Only you have the power to find them and save magic as we know it. Oh, and all the people who have magic. Anyway, that's why you were chosen. To find the Secrets and save the world of magic.

"To do this, you're going to have to go on a journey. Find me first, because I have to go with you to find the Secret of Ice. I already have an idea of what it might be. I'm located in..."

"...Island off the coast..."

"...Eagle...hurry..."

"What?" I found that the dream was fading, but Elliott was still trying to talk. Suddenly, the dream became sharply focused again and we could understand Elliott.

"I said, 'I'm located in an island off the coast of California. Eagle is coming. Hurry and be careful.'" As the last words came out of Elliott's mouth, I woke up with Mr. Smiths hovering over me. I was laying on the floor, many kids fanning my face. I sat up, and Mr. Smiths sighed in relief.

"Thank the heavens you're okay. Imagine what would happen to me if you passed out in this room." The teacher stood up and walked back to his oak desk.

"Well thanks for caring about me," I mumbled under my breath so he couldn't hear me. This teacher was so annoying and boring.

Just after I finished my test, the bell rang and it was time for me to go to Secrets of Water Magic. When I realized this, I brightened and quickly got into the classroom. Maybe this was my hint as to what to look for.

"Hello, Mrs. Jones. What are we learning about today?" I asked, looking up at my six-foot-two teacher.

"Today," Mrs. Jones responded, "we are learning about the special abilities of the first users of Water Magic, Julius Elain and Amara Heath. They worked together to form almost everything we know about the water element today."

I was elated. Maybe she would be talking about the Secret of Water Magic today. "Great!" I took my seat. The class started as other kids poured in the door and the bell to start class rang.

Mrs. Jones started talking about Julius and Amara but I already knew most of the stuff. When I tuned in, she was talking about what made Water magic different from the rest.

"Water is the element of healing and change. The secret to mastering it is-" I leaned in closer-"to go with the flow." I slumped back down at my desk. Surely that wasn't the actual Secret of Water. But as Mrs. Jones went on, I got ideas on what I was supposed to look for.

"Amara and Julius realized water elementals were getting too powerful with easy excess to the knowledge and secrets of water. They decided to hide it in a burning flame, under the water." Mrs. Jones taught us while I was furiously using my pencil to take notes. "Now, I know that doesn't make sense, but that's what legend says. It also says that one day the Chosen One will find it, but that's been proven false."

I smirked. If only you know, Mrs. Jones, I thought. If only you knew.

• • •

School ended and I was sitting at the table I normally do in the free period after school, which I usually spent up in my dorm with Diamond. Only Ben wasn't there. I felt bad, but he wasn't part of the prophecy.

"Yeah, we learned about that in Secrets of Air a couple days ago." Alex was saying. He and Caleb already knew about what they were looking for, because they had covered it in class a few days earlier.

"And you didn't say anything?" Luna was glaring at them, but not too harshly.

"How were we supposed to know?" Caleb demanded. "We just had the dream earlier today."

"Calm down, guys." said Diamond. "It's fine."

"Hothead," Luna grumbled quietly so Caleb wouldn't hear her.

"Anyway," Blue said, "all we know is that it's kind of a riddle."

"Right." I agreed. "I have to find the eternal flame that burns under the water. What about you guys?" At this point, the task seemed impossible. How was fire supposed to burn underwater? Life didn't work like that.

"I have to find a raindrop in a volcano." Caleb looked slightly distressed.

"I have to find a cloud under the ground." Blue answered. She looked puzzled.

"A piece of sun in the network of tunnels and unused bunkers under my castle and all of Neria." Luna shrugged uncertainly.

"I have to look for a rock in the skies." Alex had a perplexed look on his face.

"And I have to find a chunk of broken night sky in the spirit world." Diamond sighed.

"Well." I said. "Come Christmas break, we should get to work." Everyone nodded in agreement.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

I had a bit of trouble falling asleep that night. My mind was whirling, trying to figure out how to find fire under the water. When I did fall asleep, the Nightmare Realm greeted me. I groaned inwardly. Just what I needed tonight when it was ten o'clock when I fell asleep, and there was school tomorrow.

"Hello, Wisteria." Eagle and Nightshade were standing in front of me as I materialized in the middle of the main cave. Everyone else was gathered here so I figured there was something important that they wanted to say.

I found Caleb and stood with him. We were listening for something-anything-that gave away their sinister plans. Unfortunately, they didn't give us any good information today. We actually didn't even end up fighting. Eagle, Nightshade, Python, and another woman named Fox just talked to us the whole time.

"This is so boring." I heard someone grumble quietly.

"Excuse me?" Fox whipped around to see who was talking. She, too, was wearing a cloak that covered everything but her hands with crimson-painted nails.

"I said," the boy straightened to his full height, "this. Is. Boring." I shivered, but not from the cold. This boy wasn't even brave, just very stupid.

"Oh. Okay." Fox said. Then she started to snarl her words, sounding more like an actual fox than a human, even if she was a dead one. "We are trying to prepare you for the biggest day of your pathetic little life. So you better thank us next time." She lashed out at the speaker, who was consumed in the darkness she threw at him. When the blackness died down, the older boy was gone. Most likely dead.

A few minutes later, there was a new cloaked person in the ranks of Dark Cave residents. That boy had gotten himself killed and robbed from a peaceful death in the spirit world. Suddenly, rest in peace had a whole new meaning to me.

"As we were saying," Python looked annoyed at the interruption.

"Right." Eagle started again. "As we were saying, we are going to have more intense one-on-one training sessions. You will all be paired up with one of us senior Nightmare Realm citizens. After this, you'll be ready for the test of your life."

"What?" I whispered, as did many people around me. I looked up at Caleb, who apparently wasn't sure what was going on either.

• • •

I woke up about ten minutes after Diamond, who was somehow already dressed with her long, curly blonde hair brushed. As I got dressed into a light blue shirt and gray jeans, Diamond started talking to me from the other room.

"Have you been thinking about your elemental Secret?" She asked.

"Yeah, I still haven't been able to figure it out. Have you?" I said back as I slipped on my boots and walked into the other room where she was waiting for me.

"No. Well, yes, I've been thinking about it too, but no, I haven't figured anything out about it yet. Like, how does the night sky break? And how does it end up in the spirit world? It just doesn't make sense." Diamond shrugged.

"I don't know either." I pulled on a light sweatshirt. "Let's go meet Luna and Blue, breakfast is going to start soon." Diamond nodded and followed me out into the hall where we waited for Blue and Luna.

"Hey guys," Luna greeted us and Blue waved. We walked downstairs to breakfast together. We were silent most of the way until Blue spoke up.

"Have you guys been thinking about the Secrets?" She asked us.

"Yup." I said.

"Same." Luna agreed. "But it still doesn't make sense."

"I've been thinking about it too." said Diamond.

"You know, we should probably tell Ben about this." Luna suggested suddenly. "He would want to know and he could help us, too."

"Yeah. Yeah, okay!" Diamond agreed. We walked into the dining hall where breakfast was being served. It was Belgium waffles, like what I had for breakfast with my dad on my first day in this school.

I got my waffles, along with bacon and sausage, and sat down with Luna, Blue, Diamond, Alex and Caleb. Ben was running late.

"Hey guys, what's new?" Alex asked us.

"Not much." Blue and I answered at the same time. We looked at each other and giggled.

Ben sat down next to Luna a few minutes later.

"Hey, Ben!" Luna greeted him. "There's something we have to tell you."

His smile vanished and a curious yet concerned look appeared in his black ad red eyes. "What is it?" He asked, his brow furrowed.

Luna told him about how all of us had shared a dream with Elliott. She told him about the prophecy that we were all in and the Elemental Secrets. She told him what we were supposed to find and how we were supposed to find it to save the magic world.

"Wow," said Ben after a bit. "No pressure there."

We all laughed nervously. "I know, right?" Caleb smiled.

"Well, if you need to get all the way to California, I know how to help you. You're going to need a way to get there." Ben told us.

"Oh," Blue said. "That's right. We do need transportation."

"I didn't even think about that." Diamond laughed awkwardly a little bit.

"Anyway, I know how to get you there. There are the shadow wolves, of course, but they're only used for special occasions and are monitored by the King. Unless you want to tell him what you're doing..." Ben trailed off as Luna said no and I shook my head.

"Moving on, my lynx, Lynk, can transport most of you at the same time." Ben informed us.

"Whoa! Really?" Alex exclaimed. He cleared his throat. "That's pretty cool." Blue laughed at his outburst.

Ben smiled again. He continued. "He can grow and he's really nice. He loves to be ridden. He can travel by shadow too, and it's more precise than when the wolves do it. The only problem is, he can only have about four or five people ride him at a time."

"Oh." I said. "Well, we can just find a way to meet back up somewhere. Maybe... Well, I'm not sure. Let's take it one step at a time. At least we have a way to get there." Everyone else nodded.

• • •

That day I had a test in Water Magic 101, but I'm pretty sure I did well. After that, we watched a boring documentary in Non-Magical Folk, and then the rest of the day was normal. After school ended and I was relaxing in my dorm when a what I thought was a Nightmare Realm vision came. Instead, my mom was contacting me from the spirit world.

"Hello, Wisty." She smiled at me. It was like looking in a mirror; I looked just like my mother. The only thing that was different was that her hair was dirty blonde instead of light brown like mine was. We had the same green eyes and head shape.

"Hi, Mom." My eyes misted over but I wiped my face so I wouldn't cry. "What us it this time?"

"Nothing. I...I wanted to see how you were doing. With the prophecy and Secrets and everything that's going on." She blew her hair out of her face like she used to. "I also wanted to give you advice. Even in magic, fire cannot burn under water. Not for six hundred years." With this, my mom waved and I came back to reality.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

The next week dragged on slowly. There were still two weeks until Christmas break, so there were still two weeks until we could look for the Secrets. All of us were getting noticeably more anxious. I, for one, could usually sit still (or nap) in a class, even if it was super boring. But now I was fidgeting all the time. The only classes that took my mind off of the Secrets and Elliott were Water Magic 101 and Mythical Creatures.

On the second Saturday of December, I was playing with Ember outside where Mythical Creatures usually took place when Ben and Luna burst out of the imposing school building, walking closer to where Ember and I were.

"What do you mean, Lynk isn't "up" for it? It's in two weeks!" Luna was saying.

"Look, Luna, I'm sorry. But it isn't my fault! Lynk is sick. I'm not sure if he'll get better by the time you guys need him." Ben answered, looking genuinely distressed and sorry.

Luna sighed, seeming to release all of her anger while she exhaled. "Sorry. I just... This is so much."

"I'm sure it is." Ben answered. I realized I was staring and went back to playing with my pet tiger cub. She growled playfully and jumped on top of my head. As soon as she saw Ben and Luna approaching, she jumped off and bounded towards them. They both smiled as Ember was rubbing up against them and purring like a house cat.

"Hey, Wisty. Bad news," Ben shrugged and tried for a half-smile. "Lynk is sick. He's in the Neria Vet Office right now. They still aren't sure what caused the disease, but apparently it's rare and can't be treated with magic."

"So we don't have transportation to California, as of now." Luna shook her head. "I hope Lynk's okay."

"Oh. Well, what are we going to do now?" I asked them, not really expecting an answer. Which is good, because I didn't get one. The bell rang and free period was over.

"See you guys later," I waved to Ben and Luna. I walked back to my dorm with Ember in animal form. Usually I would have put her in dormant form but I trusted her to stay near me. As I watched Ember nearly tripping over her white paws as she padded up the stairs, Diamond materialized next to me.

She grinned. "Hey, it worked! I was trying to do something from my Secrets of Light class. Turns out, Light Elementals can teleport around by using light to...um, I forget. I didn't really pay attention to the details."

I laughed. Diamond and I raced each other up the stairs. She beat me.

"Well, Ember beat you!" I said, breathing heavily from running up three flights of stairs.

Diamond rolled her eyes as she unlocked our room. "She got a head start, and she's a magical tiger. How am I supposed to beat her?"

I shrugged and flopped down onto my bed. As soon as I hit the surface, I got another Nightmare Realm vision.

"Welcome back, Wisteria. I'm going to be your one-on-one trainer today." Fox said. The only reason I could tell it was Fox was her voice, and her red painted nails.

"Actually, Fox," I heard another voice behind me, "I would like to train Wisteria today." I turned around to see who was talking, and, just my luck, it was Eagle. I tried to keep my face expressionless as he led me to into another cave.

"What are we doing today?" I asked, trying to sound braver than I felt.

"Well, mostly just techniques. I think you're ready for the more advanced things. You, Caleb, Clara, Derek and Trent all have a certain quality that is valued in the Nightmare Realm." Eagle answered.

"And...what's that?" I questioned, pretty sure I didn't want to know the answer.

"Powerful magic."

• • •

"Did anyone talk to you about having "powerful magic" or whatever?" Caleb asked me later.

"Um, yeah..." I scraped the toe of my boot against the floor. We were standing in the lunch line, where they were serving hamburgers.

"Some guy named Jaguar talked to me too, along with a boy named...Trant? No, Trent." Caleb told me as he put ketchup on his hamburger.

"Yeah. Something tells me we'll be seeing a lot of him lately, along with a girl named Clara and," I shivered, "Derek."

"Ugh. I can't stand him." He rolled his eyes. "The way he treated you..." Caleb blushed. "Plus he's an arrogant jerk."

I cocked my head and rolled my eyes playfully. Caleb looked down at his tray the whole way we walked back to the table, where Ben, Luna and Alex sat. Diamond was helping Blue train Terra. They would be here in a few minutes.

Alex and Caleb were having a conversation about LeBron shoes and Ben and Luna were talking about Selena's coronation in a couple of years. I sat and ate my hamburger until Blue and Diamond sat down.

"Hey, Wisty!" Blue sat down.

"You look like you're having fun." Diamond giggled.

I smiled. "Yes. Listening to shoes and politics is a blast."

Blue nodded and grinned. "Sounds it," she took a bite if her burger, "I think training a lioness cub is more fun."

"Hey, Diamond. Hey, Blue. What's up?" Luna asked them. She and Ben had stopped talking about royal stuff.

"Not much." Diamond shrugged.

"Hey, I heard about Lynk. How's he doing?" Blue turned to talk to Ben.

His smile disappeared. "Well, they still don't know why he's sick. And as long as they don't know that, they can't treat him."

As lunch ended, I could see Ben's eyes were wet. I feared Lynk was more sick then he was letting on.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

Diamond and I sat in our dorm. I was reading a book and she was playing with Max.

"Hey," I said suddenly, "what if...what if Lynk isn't going to be okay?"

Diamond looked over at me. "Don't think about that, Wisty, he'll be fine." Before she turned back to Max, I could see the uncertainty in her blue eyes.

I went back to my book, which was about a boy trying to save the life of his captured friends. It was written by some guy named Harry Buck. The book ended on a cliff hanger, where the boy, Moe, had just seen a suspicious shadow and blacked out.

"Good book?" Diamond asked as I closed it and walked across the room to put it back on the bookshelf.

I nodded. "Yeah. I hope he hurries up and writes the second one. Waiting for books to come out is the worst."

The dorm phone rang, and Diamond picked it up, putting Max in dormant form.

"Hello? Oh, hi, Headmaster!" Pause. "Oh. Oops." I was guessing she realized this was a school wide phone call. She put it on speaker because apparently our dorm phones could do that.

"...Neria is in mourning." Headmaster Hart's voice was saying through the phone. "Princess Selena Channali Amora of the Nerian court has gone missing."

"What?" I whispered to Diamond. She shrugged, looking just as bewildered as I was.

I thought of Luna, who was probably in her dorm with Blue. I wondered if she was upset or crying. Then I snorted quietly. No, Luna never cried.

"King Darius and has ordered anyone with any news on the whereabouts of the Princess to contact me or him immediately. Thank you, and have a good rest of your day." He hung up. Diamond and I stared at each other for a bit in silence.

Finally, she broke it. "Do you think we should visit Luna?"

"Probably." I answered. She and I opened the door to our dorm, walked into the hallway, and knocked on Luna and Blue's door.

"Come in," Blue's voice came from the other side of the door.

I opened the door. Diamond and I walked into the room, where Luna was sitting on her bed. She looked more distressed than sad, her red eyes taking on a slightly crazed look.

Diamond sat on one side of her while Blue sat on the other. I sat down on the floor in front of Luna's feet.

"You okay?" Blue was asking her dorm mate.

Luna looked at her. She opened her mouth, probably to say a sarcastic remark, but decided not to and shook her head.

I spoke up next. "What's on your mind? You look more troubled than you do sad."

"Of course I'm sad," Luna answered. "I'm just really worried, too. If someone took her, then they got through the palace's security. You can't go ten feet in my house without bumping into a guard. They're very well trained and equipped. If the person who may have took her got through her guards, who are protecting the future queen, then what's to stop them from taking or killing my parents?" She took a deep breath and straightened her posture.

"Oh," said Diamond in a voice barely above a whisper. Just then, a voice came from behind the door.

"It's Ben," he said. "May I come in?"

Luna sighed. "Come on in." She got up and greeted him at the door. Diamond and I took this as our cue to leave. We waved goodbye to Ben, Luna and Blue. As we opened the door to our dorm, I heard Alex call to Diamond behind us.

"Hey, sis! Can I talk to you about something?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, sure! What's up?" Diamond turned around. I walked into the room and closed the door so I couldn't hear the conversation.

I flopped down on my bed, this time not receiving a Nightmare Realm vision. I just laid there, staring at the ceiling, toying with Ember's bracelet. Diamond came in about five couple minutes later. I hadn't moved at all.

Diamond flopped down on her bed too, imitating what I looked like. I giggled as she faked being dead.

"Hey, Diamond. What did Alex want to talk to you about?" I asked, then quickly added, "I mean, if you don't mind me asking."

She smiled. "No, it's fine. He just wanted to talk to me about our cousin Charlie. He was sick recently, and now he's getting better."

"Oh." I said. "Well, at least there's a bit of good news today."

• • •

As soon as the words left my mouth, I was transported to the Spirit World. I was standing in front of a tree that radiated peaceful power and magic. It was kind of a willow tree, except the branches were dark pink and the trunk was a blue-gray color. Every other tree in the Spirit World was bent a bit towards the large tree.

"Wisteria." I heard my mom. "There's something you need to know." She held a glowing dark purple mushroom.

She held it out to me and I took it. "Hi, Mom. What's this?"

"It's a luminous mushroom from the Dark Cave. It carries a disease that affects only animals. They stick to people's clothes sometimes and get carried back into the regular world."

"Okay, so... Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

"Think, honey. Do you know any sick animals?" My mom tilted her head. "I'll see you later." The Spirit World faded and I was back in reality, still holding the mushroom.

"Oh!" I leapt up and ran out of the room. "Diamond! Hurry!" I called back as I burst into Blue and Luna's dorm.

"Wisty! What's wrong?" Blue exclaimed while Ben and Luna looked at me like I was crazy.

"Ben! I know what happened to Lynk!"


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

Ben stared at me like I was insane. And I probably looked insane, breathing hard from running across the hall and from visiting the Spirit World, which took a toll on the living. My hair was messed up. I knew this without even looking because when I visited the Nightmare Realm or the Spirit World I went limp. Even though I was laying on my bed, my head probably lopped off. And then I jolted up, which probably didn't help. I caught my breath, wishing I had a brush.

"Well?" He prompted.

"This," I held the purple mushroom up so everyone could see it. "This is what caused Lynk's disease."

Ben looked down at the glowing fungus. It looked harmless enough, I guess, but we lived in a world of magic. Why shouldn't poisonous glowing purple mushrooms be able to spread disease?

He took the mushroom from me. "Where did you get it?"

"Um, my mom gave it to me."

"Your mom? But isn't she..." Luna started. "Sorry."

"Yes, my mom's dead. She gave it to me in the Spirit World." I didn't realize how ridiculous it sounded until I actually said it.

Blue raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you weren't hallucinating? I don't mean to be mean, but..."

"It sounds crazy, but really, it's true. How else would I get the mushroom? Have you guys seen anything like this on school property?"

"No. But how did Lynk get to one?" Diamond asked.

"Yeah," Ben agreed. "If they don't grown here, where did it come from?"

"It came from the Dark Cave. I guess they stick to clothes and then Lynk ate one." I told everyone.

"That makes sense." Luna said. "Lynk would eat anything." She and Ben laughed a little.

"Alright. I'm going to bring this to the Nerian vet people. Lynk's at the castle, being taken care of by the medics there." With that, Ben left.

Luna breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad Lynk is gonna be okay."

"Me too! I wouldn't be able to stand it if he died!" Diamond agreed. "I was so worried about him."

I nodded. I was glad Lynk was probably going to be okay. Since the medics knew what caused the disease they could most likely cure or treat it. I would be sad if he died.

• • •

"Wisteria, you're back." That guy Jaguar was standing in front of me that night when I was transported to the Dark Cave.

Not like I really have a choice, I thought to myself. I knew if I said it aloud I would probably take an unscheduled trip to the Spirit World. Surely I didn't belong here, right?

"Come on!" Jaguar quickly waved me over. There was probably an annoyed look on his face, but I couldn't tell, the Nightmare Realm residents being hooded and cloaked.

I followed Jaguar hesitantly down a seemingly endless labyrinth of winding rock tunnels. As soon as Jaguar stopped, we were in a room with Nightshade, Clara, Eagle, Derek, some other Dark Cave girl named Hemlock, Caleb, Python and Trent.

"Sit down with the rest if them," Python growled. I obeyed, not wanting to upset the guy. I sat down on the cold gray stone floor next to Clara and Caleb. I was on the far end, closest to the cave exit, but mainly because Derek was on the other side of the cave and I wanted to keep my distance from him.

"We've gathered you here to discuss..." Eagle started, but Derek stood up and cut him off.

"Discuss? Why don't we actually fight?" He bravely called out. I didn't like Derek, but I hoped he didn't just earn himself a place in the Nightmare Realm ranks for interrupting Eagle.

"You're lucky you have powerful magic, boy." Jaguar snarled.

Derek sat back down.

"You each have a powerful strength in magic. Trent, balance. You're able to stand your ground no matter who you're up against. Derek, ferocity, needless to say. Caleb, wisdom, for you know when to pick up the pace depending on who you're fighting. Wisteria, compassion, even though that's kind of frowned upon here. And Clara, you have the discipline of a skilled fighter." Eagle continued. "You are just the type of mages I've been looking for."

Clara let out a small squeak, so only I noticed it. "Why?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Nightshade mysteriously left it at that.

I woke up and rolled over, looking at my alarm clock. It was 7:14. Oh well, not too early. Even if I had tried, I wouldn't have been able to fall back asleep. Nightshade's words swam in and out of my head, always coming when I was just about to drift off again.

I did eventually fall back asleep, at about 8 o'clock, and I heard Eagle and Nightshade talking. I was back in the Dark Cave, but I didn't think that they knew I was there.

"...Somehow they found out about the mushroom. I don't understand! She never noticed me stick a small one on the back of her shirt!" Nightshade was saying angrily to Eagle.

"Calm down. Just because they have transportation doesn't mean they're going to get the frost-spreading nuisance from me." Eagle told her. He turned around and walked away, his jet-black cloak billowing behind him.

• • •

"Diamond! Wake up!" I shook my friend awake.

"What?" She rolled over and weakly pushed me away, her arms obviously still sleeping. "It's Sunday. I'm allowed to sleep in!" She rolled back over so her back was to me.

"I know what happened to Lynk!"

"So do I. He ate a glowing purple mushroom. Yippee, you figured it out. Can I go back to sleep now?" Diamond huffed.

"Not yet. Nightshade intentionally tried to kill Lynk!" I told her.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Nightshade? Who's Nightshade? Does she go to this school? That's a weird thing to name a kid."

"No," I said. "She's someone at the Nightmare Realm. An evil someone."

"Oh. So she tried to poison Lynk? Why would she do that?" Diamond inquired.

"She knows about us. Trying to save Elliott and get to the Elemental Secrets."

"Oh. How?"

"I'm honestly not sure. Regardless, they still know about us. I'm not sure what else they know, but we have to tell the others." I said to my friend.

"Well, we missed breakfast. We can tell them at lunch." Diamond yawned and got out of her bed. "We have toaster strudels, want one?"


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

As Diamond and I sat in the small dining area of our dorm room, munching on flaky toaster strudels, I figured out how to break the news to my friends that there were dead psychopaths trying to either make sure we failed or even kill us.

I ate the last of my breakfast pastry and laid down on my bed, grabbing my diary off the shelf above my bed to write in it. I shot a quick glance at Diamond, who was still eating.

"What?" She asked me, faking feeling hurt. "Are you accusing me of reading it?" She then put her hand on her chest in a dramatic gesture and sighed sharply.

I giggled. "No."

Diamond chuckled a bit too. "Good."

 _It's only a few more days until Christmas break when we have only two weeks to find both Elliott and our Elemental Secrets,_ I wrote. _Hopefully, we have enough time to do both and get back to class on time. I sighed._ Suddenly I felt very pressured. On Friday night of this week, we were leaving at about midnight with Lynk to Neria's coast so we could disappear without being seen by-well, anyone.

I shut the book, stood up on my bed, and slipped it back into its place on the shelf.

"Well, now I'm bored." I walked over and sat down at the table next to Diamond.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Me too."

I looked at the digital clock that sat on the nightstand in between our beds. It read 9:13. Lunch was at noon, and Luna had dragged Blue down to the school's library to do some of her homework, which she hated to do.

Diamond tapped her fingers against the wooden table. "Wanna go see Alex and Caleb? It's not like we're doing anything here."

"Sure. Are they still going to be sleeping?" I joked.

"I don't know. But if they aren't, oh well, we can wake them up." Diamond shrugged, smiling. I grinned too and followed her down the hall to where Alex and Caleb "lived."

Diamond and I simultaneously knocked on their door repeatedly. Alex opened it.

"Hey, guys. I wanted to talk to you. Come on in." He waved us into the dorm, where he and Caleb had obviously been playing video games before, because the controllers were laying on the floor.

Diamond and I looked at each other. "Okay, Alex. What did you want to talk to us about?" She asked her brother.

"I had another dream with the prophecy in it. Did you guys?" Alex asked.

"I didn't." Caleb walked into the dorm. Apparently, he had been at the library too.

"Neither did I." Diamond shook her head.

"I sort of did, but you should go first if it was directly about the prophecy." I gestured for Alex to go on.

He hesitated. "Okay. Well, Elliott was there. He repeated the entire prophecy, but it wasn't like he had called me there. He was just there, talking to me. He said, 'When the stolen is free and the to-be kidnapped is taken, do not despair. You will rescue, one way or another.'"

We were silent for a little while, all four of us. Diamond finally spoke up.

"'Do not despair?' Are you sure that's what he said? You will rescue? This guy needs better grammar." Diamond said.

"I'm sure."

"Okay. Well, it's obviously going to be someone you care about. It could be Diamond." I looked over at my friend. "I mean, not to scare you, but..."

She shook her head. "No, it's okay. So it could be me, or Caleb. So your sister or your best friend."

Caleb snorted. "'Do not despair.' Easier said than done."

"Yeah." Alex grumbled. "No kidding." We were all quiet again.

"So, Blue and Luna are probably back from the library now..." I said. "They should know too. I'll go get them." I turned and left, walking down the hall to Blue and Luna's dorm. I could hear Diamond, Alex and Caleb talking about fifteen seconds after I left. As I walked farther, their voices got muffled until I couldn't hear them anymore.

When I finally got to their dorm, they opened the door as soon as I knocked.

"Hi, Wisty. We've got something to tell you," Luna said. She peered over my shoulder. "Where's Diamond?"

"At Alex's dorm. So is Caleb. I came to grab you two so we could all talk." I replied. Luna called to Blue, who was happy to have an excuse to take a break from her work. They followed me to where Diamond, Alex and Caleb were still talking.

"And, he also... Oh! Hey, guys." Caleb waved to us. We all stood in kind of a circle, like we felt the need to protect each other from something. I didn't blame everyone; ever since I got here, my life took a pretty dangerous turn. I laughed inwardly, seeing as I was so excited to come here until I had that prophecy dream.

Alex filled Blue and Luna in on his dream, and we discussed what it could mean for about ten or fifteen more minutes.

After we stopped talking for a bit, Luna pulled a small dark glass circle rimmed with gold out of her pocket. "This is a DMC, or Dark Magic Communicator. Their used by my family to contact their guards. Only dark elementals can activate them. Their kind of like those non-magical things, walkie-talkies, I think they're called? Anyway, the range is unlimited, and I figured they would be useful on our little adventure to California."

"Awesome! That would be really useful, Luna!" Diamond beamed. Her smile seemed infectious and soon everyone in the room was grinning. It was good to receive some good, useful news instead of talking about grim dreams that confused us.

• • •

After we all went back to our own rooms, it was 10:28. I realized I had totally forgot to bring up Nightshade and how she planned to sabotage our trip. I smacked my palm against my head and closed my eyes, which I did when I was either frustrated or overwhelmed. I was guess I was kinda both at that point. I took a few deep breaths and turned on the TV in our dorm, where there was a football game going on. I sat back against my pillows. I didn't know Neria had football games! This must have been the first game because I hadn't heard about anything from the kids at school. The Capitol City Snookaloos were against the Haliburian Serpents, and the score was 14-8 right now, in favor of the Serpents.

After a bit I got bored. Diamond was napping so I released Ember. I told her to be quiet so Diamond could sleep and she nodded. I was still not really used to having a tiger cub understand things I didn't teach her. I mean, I could probably have a conversation with this baby animal!

I giggled a little. I guess I had a long list of things I didn't comprehend here in this strange world of magic.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Lynk was better and back at Ben's side today. It was Tuesday. This was great, mostly because it would be horrible if he died. When animals die, it seems like a part of their owner dies with them. When the lynx was sick, I wasn't worried just for Lynk, but also for Ben.

I trudged to Non-Magical Folk, after a surprisingly not-as-fun Water Magic 101. It was a review day, and I had completed every move quickly, leaving me about thirty minutes of class to be bored. I knew it was because of my prophecy magic. Everyone else in the prophecy aced their Magic 101's.

"Welcome, class." Mr. Smiths droned, proving he was just as boring as ever. "We will be watching a video today, and it is about the construction of the computer."

I groaned, and I wasn't the only one. The biggest problem was that we had notes to take and a worksheet to fill out and the end so I couldn't take a nap.

"Computers-one of the modern world's most important inventions," the video started. There was a woman talking about computers and all the parts. I filled in the worksheet as the video went on, which I hated, because I felt like I was going to miss something important while I was worried about writing down the notes.

Finally, after what seemed like a million and a half years, the bell rang for us to go to our next class, which meant I had Secrets of Water Magic. I picked up all of my stuff and headed down the hallways of the scholae elementorum, turning about three times to get to the classroom.

"Good afternoon, Wisteria." Mrs. Jones greeted me as I walked through the door. I took my seat and waited for everyone else to get in class.

Once the bell rang, Mrs. Jones started class right away. "We have a lot to cover today. Get out your notebooks, please."

I took out my notebook, wondering why Mrs. Jones was in such a hurry today.

"As you know, we are still on the Julius and Amara unit. Some of you know more than others. We are taking more notes, then a quiz. I prepared an MP for you, so you can take notes from that.

"Julius and Amara met when the first volcano erupted and they needed a way to put out all the fires. They were a little late to save their village by the time they learned to use the magic of the water element, but it helped save many others in the future." As the MP of Mrs. Jones went on about Julius and Amara, I took notes in my book, eventually filling up three pages, front and back.

"Time for the quiz. Try your best, and good luck." My Secrets of Water Magic teacher passed out the quiz. I heard the sound of pencils tapping against desks around me as we all started.

• • •

Diamond and I sat in our room and did our homework. After a while, I started getting anxious. We would be leaving for California on Lynk soon. I closed my eyes and put my head on the table, only I did it too fast. I ended up banging my head on the table.

"Are you okay?" Diamond asked, trying not to laugh. If I saw me, I would probably be laughing too.

"Yup." I sat up, rubbing my forehead. "It's all good."

Diamond finally gave up and laughed.

I did too, considering how ridiculous it must have looked to see me hit my head on the table like I wanted to split it in half.

"Ah...funny." I got up and put my homework on the nightstand next to my bed, where I always did before I went to sleep. It was only 4:00, but I was done with my homework, so I decided to put it away.

There was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" I called to Diamond, who was still doing her work.

I opened the door and Caleb was standing there. "Hi, Wisty."

I pushed some of my hair back behind my ear. "Hey, Caleb. Come on in."

"Thanks," Caleb walked into the dorm room. "Hi, Diamond!"

"Hi, Caleb." Diamond waved to Caleb and then returned to her work.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"I need to talk to you again. Do you want to come with me to the secret garden?" Caleb asked.

"Sure!" I answered. "Bye, Diamond! I'll be back in about an hour or so."

"Okay! Bye guys!" Diamond said. I followed Caleb outside and waited until he did his fire magic unlock-y thing with the cave.

The garden was just as beautiful as I remembered it. I looked. Over my head I saw the dome of wisteria branches, which were enchanted to stay in full bloom year-round. We sat on the park bench.

"So we're leaving in a few days." Caleb ran a hand through his red hair.

"Yeah." I tried for a nervous smile. "I'm kind of scared. We have to get Elliott back from Eagle... What is he going to do once we go back to the Nightmare Realm?" As the words came out of my mouth, I froze up and then shivered. I hadn't thought of that before.

"Oh. That never occurred to me..." Caleb's golden eyes took on a worried look. "He could kill us."

I sighed. "Or worse."


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I woke up on Friday morning, rubbing the bruises from my Nightmare Realm visit. I had battled Trent today, and he was an Earth elemental. He beat me, but only because there wasn't a lot of water to work with in the Dark Cave.

As soon as I got out of bed, realization hit me like a brick. Today, at about ten o'clock to midnight, we would be leaving this island to go to another off the coast of California.

I was expecting today to go by very slowly.

"Diamond," I gently shook my friend awake, "It's time to get up."

Instead of sluggishly rolling over, Diamond bolted up, nearly knocking her head against mine.

"Today's the day," she said. "Oh, and good morning, by the way."

I nodded. "Yup. Today is the day."

"Nervous?" Diamond asked me as she brushed her hair.

"How could I not be? Eagle is going to be there, and possibly Nightshade as well..."

"Don't be nervous. Remember that super scary three-eyed monster you took down with your amazing water skills?" Diamond joked, trying to make me feel better.

"That was planned and monitored by the school."

"It doesn't matter. You're brave enough to do this."

I sighed. "Thanks, Diamond." I threw my toothbrush and toothpaste into the bag I was packing for our Californian journey. It was magical, surprise surprise, and could fit anything in it with a spell that required balance of light and darkness to make it appear and feel smaller and lighter than it really was. In other words, a magical purse thing that expanded to fill whatever was put in it.

"Are you done packing yet?" Diamond asked. "I mean, you're going to have time later, but we have to go to breakfast now."

I put the bag on the shelf above my bed. "Not yet. C'mon, I bet Blue and Luna are waiting for us."

• • •

"So, before you go, class," Mrs. Jones was saying in Secrets of Water Magic, "just remember that your homework over break is to read chapter six of your textbooks. You don't need to take any notes."

"Thank you," I whispered.

The bell rang, and we all headed off to our last class, Mythical Creatures. "Have a nice break!" Mrs. Jones called after us.

"You too!" I called back, but I'm pretty sure she didn't hear me.

I walked to Mythical Creatures with Blue, who I met up with in the hall. She was coming from her Earth Magic 101 class, where the teacher let them out a minute early because someone had complained that they were always late to Mythical Creatures.

"What's Earth Magic 101 like?" I asked her.

"Eh. It's okay, I guess. My favorite class is Mythical Creatures though." Blue shrugged.

"Really? Water Magic 101 is my favorite." I replied. We walked into the courtyard and sat down on the grass. Mrs. Clare walked out of the woods with her griffin, Mr. Fish. She still wouldn't tell us why she had named him that.

"Hi, guys." Ben's voice said behind Blue and I. He and Luna were walking towards us, dodging the others. The courtyard was always packed, seeing as the first years and second years always had this class at the same time.

"Hey, Ben. Hey, Luna." Blue waved to them as they finally got past the ocean of people and sat down with us. Diamond arrived with Alex and Caleb next.

We could hear the bell ring from the school.

"Alright class!" Mrs. Clare yelled into the magical device she used so we could hear her. "Welcome to Mythical Creatures. Today, as a sort of Christmas present, it's a free day. Take out your animals and have fun!" The whole class cheered, leaving my ears ringing for about five minutes.

I released Ember, and showed everyone the new trick I had taught her. She had recently learned how to give me a double high-five with both of her front paws.

After that, the class went by surprisingly quick, but it was probably only because it was a free day. When we heard the bell ring, we all went back up to our rooms.

"See you guys at dinner." Caleb said before heading upstairs with Alex.

"Bye!" I waved. Caleb looked back and smiled.

As we were swept up by the sea of girls rushing up to their dorms, Blue spoke up.

"You like him, don't you?"

I looked over at her. "What?"

Luna rolled her eyes playfully. "You heard her!"

It was my turn to roll my eyes. "Even if I did like Caleb, there are more important things to worry about right now. You can tease me when we get Elliott back and find our elemental secrets."

We walked, or got pushed, up the rest of the stairs in silence. Diamond pulled out the key, because we locked our room every time we went out for some reason, and unlocked the door.

"Got any homework?" I asked her as we walked in.

"Unfortunately, yes. I have to do a worksheet for Non-Magical Folk and then two short worksheets for History of Light Magic." Diamond nodded.

"I have the Non-Magical Folks sheet too. Do you want to work together on it?" I offered.

"Sure. That might make it less boring." Diamond sighed. "I hate that class."

"Me too! If they're going to have a boring class, at least have a fun teacher." I laughed.

"I know, right?" Diamond took out her homework. We finished it within ten minutes. The questions were really easy. I think the hardest one was like, what do people without the advantages of ice magic do to keep cool in the winter? A) Air conditioning. B) fans. C) both B and C.

Yeah. I told you it was easy.

"Great. Now I get to do my History of Light Magic homework." Diamond made a face and pulled out a two page worksheet that was more like a test than a homework assignment.

I was so glad I hadn't gotten anything like that. "Yeah, have fun!" I joked.

"Do you have anything else?" Diamond asked.

I nodded. "I just have to read in my Secrets of Water Magic book."

"Lucky."

After we both finished our work, we went down to dinner, because it took us that long to finish. My chapter was actually about fifteen pages long, and there was a chart about the effect Julius and Amara's discovery of water magic I had to study.

"Hi, Wisty. Hi, Diamond." Caleb greeted us as we sat down at the table with our dinner of fried chicken. Blue, Luna, Alex and Caleb were already at the table when Diamond and I arrived.

A few minutes later, Ben ran into the cafeteria and quickly got his food. He sat down in the seat next to Luna.

"Hey guys." He huffed. "Sorry I'm late."

"It's okay." Luna replied. "So, you know that DMC I showed you guys?"

"Yeah," Blue and Diamond said at the same time.

"Well, I have two. Since Lynk needs to take two separate trips, Ben and I are taking one group each because we're the only ones who can use the communicators. We haven't determined the groups yet, and we'll do that when the time comes. Since Lynk could end up in different places in California and we can't go straight to the island Elliott is on, we need to have a way to communicate with one another." Luna told us. She handed one of the dark glass circular devices to Ben.

He took it. "Thanks."

"And we should all keep our eyes peeled." Luna said.

Alex looked puzzled. "Why?"

Luna's gaze dropped. "Maybe my sister is out there somewhere. Her guards haven't been able to locate her. I'm starting to think the worst."

"Oh." Caleb said.

"Wait a sec. Why don't you have any guards?" I asked. "If your sister is missing, you'd think they would take extra measures to protect you."

Blue nodded. "Come to think of it, you've never had guards here with you."

"Why is that?" Diamond cocked her head.

Luna's mouth tightened into a straight line. "My father never gave me any." She answered curtly. I took the hint to drop it, but Alex apparently didn't.

"But what about your mother?" He inquired.

Luna's face went from angry to sad. "She's dead. Ever since she died, my father blamed me. He treats Selena like, well, a princess. He treats me like a cockroach."

Ben took Luna's hand. She shot him a grateful look and smiled sadly.

"Oh." Alex whispered. "I'm sorry." Luna nodded, but I knew how hollow those words seemed. They never brought either of our moms back, and they never would.

• • •

"Wisty. Wake up. You fell asleep, and it's time to go." Diamond said to me.

I sat upright. "What time is it?"

"It's 10:15. We're all getting ready to leave. Get your bag and let's go." She said gently.

I took a deep breath and got out of bed. I guess I fell asleep right after dinner. I grabbed my bag off the shelf and hurried downstairs after Diamond. We all met up outside to embark on our first task: find and take Elliott from Eagle.

"Alright, let's go!" Alex said and we walked out of school. I was surprised no one was there to try and stop us. This was too easy.

We got to the island's coast, and I took another deep breath. I closed my eyes, listening to the cool breeze rustle the leaves of nearby palm trees, owls hooting in the distance, and the waves lap up against the sandy shore of Neria. It was almost just another peaceful night.

I was suddenly hit by the overwhelming-ness of it all, because we only had two weeks to find Elliott and our elemental secrets or else the Final Battle was already half won-and not by us.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"So we split up into groups now?" Alex asked.

"Yup. My group is going first. It's going to consist of three people so Lynk can get used to carrying people. Got your DMC, Ben?" Luna said.

He nodded. "Yep."

Luna nodded too. "Good. My group will be me, obviously, and Diamond and Caleb."

"And I'll be taking Alex, Blue and Wisty." Ben said.

I looked at both dark mages in front of me, thinking about how great of a king and queen they would make.

"Alright." Ben released Lynk from the black and red leather band around his wrist. "Okay, buddy. You're going to be taking Luna and her friends to California, in America. Can you do that?"

Lynk nodded. He scrunched his face in concentration and his back grew longer. He then flicked his tufted ears to signal that he was ready.

"Okay then." Luna hopped on Ben's red and black lynx. "Bye, guys!" Everyone else in Luna's group hopped on Lynk.

"Bye!" Ben called and the rest of us waved while Lynk shimmered like a mirage an disappeared.

"So...what now?" Alex asked.

Ben looked like he was waiting for something. "Lynk's going to be back in a few seconds. Just wait." Sure enough, in about ten seconds, Lynk appeared right in front of us and gestured for all of us to get on his back.

"Let's go, buddy." Ben patted Lynk's shoulder as soon as we all got on. Next thing I knew, we were off the island.

Traveling in darkness was probably the strangest thing I've ever done. It felt felt like I was being pulled forward and pushed backwards at the same time, and it was pretty cold. Spheres of light flashed past us as we kept moving through the shadows. Despite that, it was really dark. I suddenly felt like I was spinning out of control while staying in one place. I grabbed onto someone's shoulder or arm, but I wasn't sure who, mostly because my vision was slightly blurry, but it was very dark so I probably wouldn't have been able to see them anyway.

We finally materialized in a large desert, and considering it would be summer here in America but winter in Neria, it was way too hot. Alex pulled out a map.

"Always come prepared," he said. Blue and I peered over his shoulder to see where we were. The map was magical. No, it didn't talk like Dora's, but it showed a moving silver dot wherever Alex was. We were just inside California's border, in a place called Death Valley. I rolled my eyes. Of course we ended up in the hottest place in America! And of course it was summer.

"Luna?" I heard Ben from a few feet away from us, putting Lynk in dormant leather wristband form. He was talking into his DMC. "Luna, where are you?"

Luna's face appeared in the black-tinted glass. "We're on Ocelot Avenue in LA. Where are you guys?"

Ben sighed. "In Death Valley. Almost all the way across California."

"Oh, joy." I whispered.

Blue lit up. "Ocelot Avenue? That's where my family lives!"

Ben looked over. "Wait, really? Do you think they could provide some shelter?"

"Um, probably," Blue shrugged. "My little sister Harper is probably at a soccer camp for break or something. So two rooms will be free, maybe they'll let us stay."

"Did you hear that, Luna?" Ben asked.

"Yes," she answered, then raised her voice. "Blue, what is the address?"

Blue moved closer to the communicator and said, "1709 Ocelot Avenue, Los Angeles. It's a big cream-colored house."

"Thank you." Luna sighed in relief. "Even though it's like 4:05 PM here, we're still going to need a place to sleep tonight, and I was really hoping we wouldn't have to find a nice dumpster to crash in because I didn't want people thinking we're hobos..."

Blue, Alex, Ben and I laughed.

"Alright, well, we're going to find our way out of here. Bye, Luna." Ben turned his DMC off as soon as Luna's image in the glass stopped waving.

"Wait, we have to 'find our way out of here?'" Alex looked both disappointed and confused.

"Why can't we take Lynk?" Blue asked.

I answered before Ben could. "He probably needs to rest," I guessed, turning back to Ben. "Right?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Let's get going, or else we aren't going to get to civilization before nightfall." He put the glass into the pocket of his jeans and started off.

"Hey," I caught up with Blue. "Are you nervous?"

She looked at me. "Are you kidding? Yeah! Aren't you?"

"No," I said jokingly, "what's to be scared about? I mean, we only have a week deadline and there are two murderous psychopaths to be scared of, not to mention we have to find our elemental secrets that have been hidden for centuries. I'm not worried at all!" Both of us started to laugh despite it all, earning us concerned looks from Ben and Alex.

"Yeah, you're right," Blue laughed, "What should we be scared of?"

Ben rolled his eyes and smiled while he and Alex returned to their conversation while Blue and I continued to laugh hysterically over pretty much nothing.

After about two minutes we stopped, mainly because our stomachs hurt.

I really hoped we could get out of Death Valley soon, because I had stupidly not packed any food, just a water bottle. I wasn't sure if anyone in our group had food, all I knew was where we were going, because Alex was smart and packed his magical map.

After about an hour, we were still trudging through the desert. My feet were starting to hurt, because I decided to wear my sandals instead of my sneakers, which were in my bottomless handbag.

"Ben?" Blue said.

He stopped and turned around. "Yeah, what's the matter, Blue?"

Blue sighed. "When will Lynk be ready to travel again? My feet are killing me."

Alex laughed.

"Soon, hopefully," Ben smiled. "But it needs to be darker for him to teleport by darkness."

"Fine by me!" I said. "That made me feel sick. And dizzy."

Blue nodded. "I did too, but I also felt someone grab onto my shoulder really hard."

I laughed. "That may or may not have been me."

The sun started to set at about 5:45, but Ben said Lynk probably had to rest for a few more minutes, in which Blue groaned in response.

"Don't worry, guys." Ben assured us. "We'll be out of this soon. Let's just keep going, Lynk will be ready in a little bit."

As we walked, I asked, "Is anyone thirsty?"

"Yeah." Alex said. "But...I didn't bring a water bottle or a juice box or anything. I feel like I'm going to thirst to death." He cracked a smile while all of us laughed.

"I'm pretty thirsty too. I have a small water bottle, but I don't think that'll cut it." Blue shrugged.

"How about you, Ben?" I turned to him.

He nodded. "Yeah, but you guys probably need it more than I do, I drank right before we left Neria."

"Okay." I said. "I can help with that." I took out my water bottle and set it down on the sandy ground. I knelt down and brought my hand up slowly, water flowing out the top of the bottle to match the speed of my hand. I then formed the water into a ball and split it into fours.

"Who wants to be the first person to ever eat water out of the air in Death Valley?"

"Me!" Blue rushed forward and closed her mouth over the floating ball of water and swallowed. "Awesome. First time I've ever done that."

Alex went next followed by Ben. I ate (can you really "eat" water?) my ball of water last. After that, Lynk was finally ready and we didn't have to walk through the stupid desert any longer.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

After we teleported through the shadows again, we ended up on Ocelot Avenue, which was apparently a very busy street. That was good, and no one noticed us when we suddenly appeared in the shade of a tall tree. Ben swiftly flashed his arm out and Lynk turned back into a red-and-black leather wristband.

"Where are the rest of us?" I asked.

Ben shrugged. "I'm not sure, but it would be too risky to call Luna using the DMC here." He looked around. "Too many people."

"We could go in there," Alex pointed to a small and obviously run-down shop. It was apparent there were very little, if any, people. It was called The Beaten Path, and no one but us seemed able to see it. Everyone else walked by, talking on their phones or impatiently waiting or calling for taxis.

Blue walked in front of us and pushed open the door. "Come on!" She smiled waved us in. "My mom and I come here a lot. It's a great store, and...well, you'll see.

The rest of us followed her, me falling behind, because I was still dizzy from the shadow teleportation and bewildered by all the noise and bustle of Los Angeles.

"Hey, it's Skye!" A big guy with a mustache said, and came over to greet her. "I haven't seen you since you left for school in Neria. Who are you living with there, by the way?"

She grinned at the man. "Hi, Steven. I live in my dorm with a girl named Luna. But during the summer I'll be staying with her, and so will the rest of my friends."

The man-Steven's-eyes widened. "Luna?" He whispered. "Like...the Luna? The Princess?"

"Yes, Princess Luna. We're roommates this year." Blue answered, still smiling at the man.

Alex butted into the conversation. "Wait. You know who we're talking about?"

Steven turned to him, a shocked look still on his face. "Well, yes. You're standing in the only place in LA where people can use their elemental magic without being discovered! The Los Angeles government knows about it, as does the National, but they have to worry about gas prices and stuff, so they don't really care unless we cause big problems."

"Oh. That's cool." Alex replied.

I looked around. "This place isn't too shabby. I mean, it looks pretty old on the outside."

A woman behind the counter flicked her wrist. Apparently this was a kind of bar or something too. "Nah," she said. "It just looks that way because we used light magic and dark magic together to make it look old to magic people and like ruins to non-magical folk."

"That's really cool. I didn't know they could do that." Ben looked impressed. "It's very nice in here."

The same woman smiled. "Thank you. I'm Miss Suzana, who are you kids? Well, I know you, Skye, but who are your friends?"

"This is Alex, Wisty, and Ben." Blue introduced us all.

The woman raised her eyebrows. "Well, I'll be. Ben, Luna's fiancé from Neria? What a day this has been." She shook her head disbelievingly.

"Yup, that's me." Ben answered, then smiled jokingly. "Want an autograph?" Miss Suzana laughed.

"Can I get you guys smoothies?" Blue asked us. "I brought money. It's on me."

I shook my head. "You don't have to."

"Really. I'll buy, and then we can have dinner at my house. I know the way from here."

Alex grinned. "Well, if you insist..." Blue laughed and bought us all smoothies of our choice. Alex got a banana smoothie, I got a mango smoothie, and Ben and Blue both got a blueberry smoothie.

We walked out of the little store with our smoothies, but no one noticed us. Blue led us down the street and we turned left about twice and right once until she stopped in front of a big cream colored house.

Blue knocked on the door. A woman with dark hair and soft hazel eyes answered it. Her face brightened as soon as she saw Blue. "Skye! I missed you! Come on in, your friends can too. Luna, Diamond and Caleb are already inside having dinner."

"Hi, mom." Blue gave her mother a hug as we walked inside.

I looked around. There was a big living room and a slightly smaller dining room next to it, and the walls were painted a light gray in each room.

"You have a very nice house, Mrs. James," I said politely as I sat down at the table to eat soup.

"Please, call me Ashlynn. And thank you. My husband and I worked very hard. When we bought this house, it was very, well, not like it is now." She laughed.

"So, how was your trip, guys?" Diamond asked us while eating her soup.

I looked at Alex, Blue and Ben. "Um, it was okay, I guess. I liked The Beaten Path. It was cool to see magical people living here in Los Angeles." I said.

Mrs. James, er, Ashlynn, smiled at that too. "Ah, yes. It's probably the only reason my husband and I came to live here."

"Where is Dad, anyway?" Blue asked, looking around.

"He went to soccer camp with Harper. He's the coach, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Blue responded.

"What time is it?" Luna asked.

Alex looked at his watch. "It's seven o'clock." Luna nodded. We all finished the rest of the chicken noodle soup in silence, probably pondering how we were going to get Elliott from Eagle.

After everyone finished, Blue's mom showed the girls to Blue's room and the boys to hers. She said she could take Harper's room since it was only her. We all put our pajamas on and went to our rooms for the night.

As I lay out the mattress on Blue's floor, I thought about Elliott and the Elemental Secrets. When everyone was ready, I expected us to stay up and talk, but I guess we were all very tired because we fell asleep within a half an hour.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty-One

Morning came all too soon. I slept soundly; no Nightmare Realm dreams at all. Luna ended up waking me because it was almost 8:30 and everyone else was awake and they all had breakfast, so I sat at the dining room table and at my Frosted Flakes while everyone else waited for me to finish. Blue's mom was making sure everyone's things were packed and they had enough food and money for the next two weeks.

Once I finished, I joined everyone in the living room. "So, how are we going to do this?" I asked.

Diamond shook her head uncertainly. "I really don't know. But, how are we going to get back to Neria?"

Alex spoke up next. "I've been thinking about that too. But we all have some form of teleportation, right? Like Caleb has this thing were he can go up in smoke and then end up wherever he wants to be..."

"Oh, yeah!" Blue said. "I forgot about that. I have this thing were I can navigate under ground tunnels, and I've even done it under the floor of a lake before."

Blue's mom looked at us from in the kitchen where she was cleaning up. "How are you guys able to do that already? I didn't learn how to teleport like that until I was a sixth year student, Caleb."

"The prophecy, Mom." Blue whispered. Her mom nodded uneasily and returned to cleaning.

"Right. Ben and I can take Lynk. Right?" Luna looked over at her fiancé, who nodded. We were all uptight, you could feel it. It was like you could cut the tension with a knife. Caleb looked like he was going to throw up, and so did Blue and Diamond. I was sure Alex was going to pass out, and Luna and Ben kept looking at each other with anxious looks on their faces. I noticed that my hands were twitching and I didn't stop moving since I got up.

"Alright," Luna said, standing up from the dark gray sofa where she and Ben sat, "We should probably get going. It's almost 10:00 and the sooner we get Elliott back the better."

I sighed. "Yeah, let's go." As I stood up from the pillow I was sitting on, the knot in my stomach wound itself tighter. Everyone else stood up too, we said goodbye to Blue's mother and headed out the door after Blue took a long-ish time. I understood. Saying goodbye to my mother was hard, and then I didn't know I would never see her again.

I shook my head as if to shake the thought out of my head. I couldn't worry about that now. We had not one but two huge tasks ahead of us.

"Hey, Wisty. Nervous?" Caleb asked me as we walked to one of California's beaches. We couldn't take Lynk because we would be risking people seeing us, and the Beaten Path was too small and well-lit for us to teleport in there. Besides, we decided we didn't want to have to go through the whole location confusion.

I looked at him. "Are you kidding me? Of course I'm nervous!" I threw my hands in the air for emphasis. He laughed a little and then went to talk to Alex.

We had all formed a little group of people walking towards the beach. I bet we looked odd; two kids, Luna and Ben, with nice clothes on, two boys, Caleb and Alex, quietly talking about the good things about snow, and then the rest of us girls walking silently with the rest. None of us had swimsuits or even flip-flops, like most of the people who were heading where we were.

"Hey!" A surfer came up to our little pack. "What's with you guys? Why so serious? Relax, dudes!"

Luna glared daggers at him. "We have somewhere very important to be. I suggest you leave us alone now." She smiled curtly. "Bye."

"'Kay, whatever." He gave us a strange look and ran towards his surfer friends.

Blue snorted. "That was weird. Usually they stay in their surfer groups."

"Maybe he was trying to be friends," Diamond suggested.

Ben shrugged. "It doesn't really matter, anyway. We should keep going."

Caleb looked confused. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"Good question," Blue muttered under her breath.

"Still got your map, Alex? Does it show magical locations?" Diamond asked her brother.

He nodded. "Good idea. Yeah, it does. Let me get it." He pulled the map out of his pocket where it was folded up. He unfolded it and showed us all where we were.

"How about there?" Luna pointed to a small grove of palm trees where no one appeared to be. Apparently the map showed where other people were too.

"Yeah, that looks pretty hidden. We could make our way to the island that way." Diamond said.

"How?" Alex asked.

"I can help with that," I answered. "I could do a Moses thing and part the water, but that might cause waves and attract attention. We would be safer walking on the ocean floor."

"The ocean floor. Yeah, sounds super safe!" Blue joked, and I laughed.

"With an air bubble around us, of course. Alex, you would have to help me out with that. I mean, drowning isn't a very good option if we're trying to save the world..." I smiled. "Okay, let's do this."

"Here goes nothing." Alex said, forming a bubble around us.

Luna looked around. "Are we ever going to run out of oxygen?"

Alex shrugged.

"That's comforting," Ben murmured. I smiled at his sarcasm.

Diamond glanced up and around, analyzing her surroundings. "It's very big in here. I've always wondered what it was like to be in a bubble."

I looked over my shoulder and saw Alex with his arms spread out to keep the bubble formed around us. He stood in the middle of the single file line we ended up forming.

"And away we go!" I said, walking into the water and gesturing for everyone to follow so the bubble wouldn't pop. As we defied the laws of, well, pretty much everything, we saw fish swimming around us in colorful schools. Sand dollars and starfish lay on the ground. Sea anemones reached at the water as clownfish darted in and out. Everything looked so peaceful, that was until I heard someone gasp behind me.

Luna was pointing to the water outside us. "Shark..." Was all she said.

Of course there was a shark. Just what we needed right now.

"Shark? Where?" Caleb asked. Luna sighed in relief.

"It's gone now. We're all good." Luna said. We all kept going until Alex stopped us.

"We're getting close to the shore. There should be an incline in a few more minutes of walking. Then we'll be on the shore." He informed us.

"Thanks, Alex." I said, then kept going until we were on the Californian island shore.

"That was surprisingly fun!" Ben smiled. Diamond nodded in agreement while Luna just blinked as if she didn't know what to say.

"Okay." I addressed the group. "Let's find Eagle and take Elliott back."


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter Thirty-Two

As we made our way to the middle of the lush, green island, I felt sicker and sicker to my stomach. Eagle knew we were coming, I was sure he did, but I noticed I hadn't had any Nightmare Realm dreams or visions since I overheard Nightshade and Eagle talking. I got a chill down my spine even though it was very hot and humid on the island. Did he know I was eavesdropping?

Nobody talked until we saw a small hut made of bark with a straw roof. It looked very primitive and unimpressive, but Eagle probably wanted us to overlook the hut. Either that, or he was leading us into a trap.

"Should we go in there?" Diamond asked.

Ben shrugged. "It's our best bet. I mean, I don't see any other houses, if you could even call it that, around."

"Alright." Luna sighed, and I could tell she was really nervous too, no matter how hard she was trying not to show it. "We should go in. It's not like we have another plan."

I led the way for some reason. Luna seemed to know what she was doing more than I did, but she never ended up taking the lead. We arrived in front of the hut. I heard a collective deep breath, but when I looked over my shoulder, I realized I was the one who had done it. I shook my head lightly and opened the door.

"One at a time," I whispered to my friends. "Who wants to go first?"

No one volunteered. Go figure.

I sighed. "I'll call for help if I need it. Stay here and keep watch." With that, I walked into the hut. It was noticeably cooler in here than outside, which I didn't expect because it was so small. Or so I thought. It was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked.

I walked down the hall, noticing frost the spread across the wall in shimmering cold patterns. Now I knew we were in the right place.

Walking into the next room, I almost slipped because of the ice on the floor. "Elliott?" I dared to whisper.

"It's okay. Eagle isn't here." I heard Elliott's British accented voice call from another room.

"It's Wisty," I said to him, but when I turned the corner, I was in for a not-so-pleasant surprise.

It wasn't Elliott that was talking to me at all. In fact, he was tied to a chair and gagged, though very much conscious and trying to escape.

"Hello, Wisty," Eagle said in Elliott's voice, which was seriously starting to creep me out, "I'm so glad you could make it!"

I decided not to call for backup yet. "Me too. Speaking of making it here, how did you get here?"

"I flew. I'm an air elemental, remember? So is Nightshade." Eagle was obviously stalling, just like I was. But why?

"Eagle." I said firmly, giving all I had to make sure my voice didn't shake. "Give Elliott up and no one's going to get hurt."

His face fell in fake dismay. "But I worked so hard to capture him! I don't want to give him up so soon. Not when the fun is about to begin..." I suddenly knew why he was stalling when Nightshade appeared by his side, an almost identical version of Eagle, except she was a girl. Besides that, they looked very similar, wearing their ever-present black cloaks.

"Backup!" I yelled as loud as I possibly could. My friends obviously heard me because I heard many footsteps pounding on the floor, and I heard them halt suddenly. They must have almost slipped on the ice like I did.

"How cute. Your friends are here too!" I could almost see Nightshade's mocking smile in my mind. "Awesome, they can join the party!"

All my friends burst into the room at that moment. It looked pretty good for us at that moment, it was eight against two, but then I remembered they had years, decades, maybe even centuries, to perfect their abilities.

"Give us Elliott." I repeated, trying to sound as threatening as I could.

Eagle looked around. I think. His face was still masked by the hood on his cloak. "Oh, I'm scared!"

I was getting really sick of these people.

"You should be." Caleb lit his hands on fire, which didn't hurt him. I've seen him shoot fireballs from his hands without any damage to them at all.

All of my friends took on a sort of a battle stance. I will admit it looked kind of sloppy, but it was the best we had. Alex hovered in the air, Blue was ready to chuck some rocks she had risen from off the ground, Diamond had pillars of light coming out of her palms Luna and Ben had tendrils of darkness spreading put around them. Luna looked ready to go wolf any minute.

I chucked a nearby rock (yes, there was a rock in the house) at the window. It shattered. By now everyone was looking at me like I was crazy, but I knew what I was doing. Though the window, I was able to take water from the trees and grass, and then use that as a defensive weapon in case Eagle and/or Nightshade decided to attack.

I had just gotten my water ready when Nightshade flung air at Diamond, and it hit her in the stomach. This made me so angry I swear I saw red, and I shot the water at her head. I saw it freeze in mid-air but keep going all the way to the back of Nightshade's head and I got confused, until I saw Elliott look at me and wink. I smiled gratefully and proceeded to collect the water again. Now there was a full-out battle going on, and even anti-violence Diamond had joined in. Sure, she wasn't as mad or into it as Luna (who was in wolf form) Ben, or Alex, but every effort counted because we were badly outnumbered in terms of experience.

Eagle turned towards me, throwing Wolf Luna off his arm. He shot air towards me while Nightshade was taking on everyone else. I fell back, sprawling, and at just that moment Elliott burst out of his pretty flimsy restraints (for magic anyway) and pulled back Eagle's hood.

I gasped in shock, anger and horror when I saw who it was.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter Thirty-Three

Everyone stopped, even Nightshade. I started breathing heavier and heavier. A million thoughts flashed through my head, some of them memories: my dad telling me his magic animal was an eagle. My dad yelling into the weird glass thingy to make sure the kid didn't freeze anything. Eagle, when he said he had taken a liking to me. Yeah, right.

After the memories faded, I felt no love for my dad. I just lost it.

"DAD!" I started screaming my head off. "It's been you the whole time! Oh my god. My dad is dead! And he's a monster! I... What?! How could you do this to me?! I'm your _DAUGHTER!_ And what about mom? She DIED and you try to kill your guy's ONLY CHILD! How long have you been doing this?!" He opened his mouth to answer, not a flicker of shame or sadness apparent on his face. "No! I don't want to hear it. Give us Elliott and I'll get out your life, like I was ever in it anyway!" I grabbed Elliott's arm and tried to walk out of the room, my friends following me with dazed looks on their faces, until Nightshade stopped me.

"Where do you think you're going?" She said to me.

"Get out of my way. I don't need to deal with you fake, jerky, evil, cruel, sickening people right now." I growled. I gathered some water and threw it at her, which knocked her hood off. I guess they were more stable in the Nightmare Realm, or I shot the water at her way harder than I thought.

"No. Way." Blue gasped behind me. No, it wasn't her dad.

I looked at the woman in front of me. My dad was one thing, but this was insane.

"Mrs. Hart. You're Nightshade. That's...wait, not possible! You're a water elemental!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, Wisty. It is possible. I can use both water and air magic. You've been so oblivious all this time, it was so easy to trick you and..." I cut her off.

"You know what? Can it. I don't want to hear a long speech about how I trusted you. I obviously made an incredibly stupid mistake to even like you, so get out of my way before I send a small riptide up your nose." I was slightly fed up at this point, and I just wanted to find my Elemental Secret and get back to Neria, where I would hopefully never see either of these people, or whatever they were, again.

My dad stepped in front of Nightshade. I'm not even calling her Mrs. Hart anymore.

"We can't allow that to happen. Sorry, Wisty." He said.

I looked up at him. "No you aren't. Move."

He sent a jet of air at me, but Elliott intercepted it with a shield of ice. As promised, I shot a swirling jet of water up Nightshade's nose, leaving her coughing. She shot me an impressively scary look, which must have been hard considering she was coughing that hard. Wolf Luna sprung on Dad, bowling him over. She didn't bite him or scratch him. She just sat down on his stomach and jumped up and then landed hard whenever he tried to sit up, forcing him back down again. Elliott and Blue were extremely helpful, encasing Nightshade's feet in rock and Dad's feet and hands in ice. Luna sprang off his stomach and changed back into a human.

Diamond was immediately by my side as soon as we left the room. I just realized how hot I was. Whether it was from anger, the adrenaline rush, or just the fact that it was hot, I wasn't sure.

"Are you okay?" Diamond asked me with concern shimmering in her blue eyes.

"I've got a few bruises and scratches, and there's a gash on my leg from the glass that's bleeding. That probably wasn't the best way to get water. Other than that, I'm not hurt."

Diamond looked at me. "You know what I mean."

I sighed. Was I okay? "Um... I'll get back to you on that."

• • •

We were back under water, me back in the lead, navigating us back to the small hidden grove on the Californian beach. Alex wasn't talking much, and I k ew he was concentrating on keeping our air bubble from popping. It was bigger than the first time because we had an extra person. We had successfully retrieved Elliott from my evil father and evil teacher. I hope her butt gets fired.

I could hear people chatting quietly behind me, especially Ben and Elliott. Apparently, they were roommates before he was kidnapped over the summer. This made me a little happier, because now I knew we kept the same dorms all through school.

"Wisty?" Blue said. She was by my side now.

"Hey, Blue, what's up?" I replied, trying to sound nonchalant.

She sighed. "You know exactly what's up. How are you?"

It was my turn to sigh. "I...it's weird. I don't hate him, but I definitely don't like him at all. I don't know. Its hard to explain." Blue nodded, obviously taking the hint to _please back off._

We walked back to California's coast and emerged on shore in the grove on Long Beach. Alex let the air bubble pop and we walked back up to a street, where we called for a taxi. We had to split up again, but we all ended up on Ocelot Avenue. I had taken taxis a lot in New York, but Blue was the one who knew how to get around LA, so she led us to the best places to get the taxi.

Blue knocked on her mom's door, and she came to the door. "Skye! Hey, you kids actually back pretty early. I thought you guys were going to find your secret things."

Elliott spoke up next. "We decided it was late."

"Who's this? Is he the one you were looking for?" Mrs. James asked.

Everyone nodded. Blue's mom let us inside. We were all really tired so she set up where we were all going to sleep and let us go to sleep without asking us any questions about what happened or we found the island.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

After another night at Blue's house in LA, we decided we would set off to find our Elemental Secrets that day, after Elliott told us what he knew about them.

We all sat down in the living room again, but this time we weren't as nervous as last time. Either that, or we just faked it better.

"Okay. The only thing I can tell you guys for sure is that, Blue, you have to travel under the Himalayas in Asia. Caleb, your volcano is in Hawaii. Wisty, you have to go under the Indian Ocean, somewhere near the coast of Madagascar. Alex, you are going to need to fly above Denver, Colorado to find your Secret. Diamond and Luna, you know where you're going." Elliott told us.

"How about you?" Diamond asked. "Where will you be going and what are you looking for?"

Elliott looked at her. "I'm going to Greenland to find a melted piece of coal."

I sighed. "None of this makes sense."

Elliott smiled. "No, it doesn't, but isn't that what makes it interesting?"

Caleb snorted. "'Interesting' is an understatement." We all laughed.

• • •

Later that morning, we had all of our stuff packed and we were ready to go. Blue's mother told us to be careful and good luck, and hugged her daughter good bye. We walked to a part of LA that isn't busy-if you can believe it-and got ready to leave, making sure we had all of our stuff.

"Well," Luna told us, "Ben and I are leaving first. Be safe, good luck, and I'll see you back at Neria."

Alex smiled. "Okay...mom."

Luna rolled her red eyes in fake annoyance. She hopped on Lynk. "Alright, Ben. Let's go." Ben hopped on too.

"Bye guys!" He waved at us as he and Luna disappeared.

"Goodbye!" Diamond waved back. Then she turned back to us. "Elliott, how do I get to the Spirit World?"

He tilted his head. "Well, you could teleport there, but there's a lot of security there, believe it or not. It's to make sure the people who did bad in their lives don't end up in the Spirit World. Or you could try to get there through a dream, but that doesn't always work."

Diamond sighed. "Okay, I'll just go through security. I mean, I'm sure they'll love me!" She batted her eyelashes and smiled sweetly. We laughed. It was good that we could make jokes to lighten the mood. She smiled. "Bye, guys. I'll miss you! Have fun finding your Elemental Secrets!" She waved again and then was gone in a flash of light.

After the spots faded from my vision, Alex told us good luck and flew to Denver. Apparently when he was flying he could travel way faster than normal, so he would be there later today.

Blue turned toward Elliott, Caleb and I. "I'll see you guys, hopefully sooner rather than later. Good luck!" With that, she jumped into a hole on the ground she made with a wave of her hand with no hesitation.

I inhaled deeply. "Okay. I'm honestly super nervous, so I just want to get this over as soon as possible. Bye, guys."

"Bye, Wisty!" Caleb waved. "I'll see you back at Neria!"

Elliott waved too. "It was nice to meet you, Wisty. See you later!" I waved to them too, and then evaporated into the air. This was a form of teleportation, not air travel. The mist cloud had two purposes, I guess.

• • •

Teleportation took a lot longer than I thought it would. From all the books and movies and stuff it usually takes like a second at most, and Lynk's teleportation was fast too, but mine took about five minutes. It felt like being pushed and pulled like Lynk's teleportation, but it wasn't cold and I wasn't dizzy. I felt like I was floating but it also felt like I didn't have a physical form. Maybe you would think about it as flying, but Mrs. Hart, no, Nightshade, had called it teleportation. Even so, we had only teleported to hula hoops about six feet in front of us. That didn't take very long.

As soon as I materialized on land, I took out my magical map. Alex had cut pieces off his and gave one to all of us. The maps reminded me of starfish because Alex's map had restored it's original size and my map piece was growing to a full-sized map.

I was in the middle of the island of Madagascar. I was pleased; I didn't really expect to get to Madagascar let alone the coast of it on my first try of long-distance travel by mist cloud. Now that I was here, I took in my surroundings. It was very hot here. In America, on the other side of the world, it was winter, which meant it was summer here. I found an unoccupied field, pulled a short summer dress out of my magical Mary-Poppins-type bag, and quickly changed. Now that I was cooler, I tried to make my way to the coast where I would...dive under the water without an oxygen tank.

Oh. Crap.

I hadn't thought about that at all. I didn't even have Alex to give me an air bubble, and I wasn't even sure how far I would be going down. A smaller bubble would probably pop from water pressure if I went too far down.

I didn't encounter any people at that point, luckily. I bet I looked odd, a girl with a pastel blue and lemon yellow dress that went to about my knees walking around in Converse sneakers. I didn't speak the language either, but I knew some French from my grandmother, and I knew French was spoken here. I did eventually find someone, who looked a bit apprehensive of me, but talked to me anyway. In French.

"Um, parlez vous français?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Oui."

I shook his outstretched hand. "Bonjour. Parlez vous anglais?" I asked him next.

He smiled. "Yes, I speak English. I'm one of the few in Madagascar who do."

I let out a breath of relief. "Oh, good. That makes it SO much easier. I don't know that much French." I said to him. He laughed.

"Oh, I'm Mahir." We shook hands again.

"That's a nice name. What does it mean?" I asked.

He nodded. "It means "skilled." And you are?"

"Oh! I'm Wisteria, named after a tree with purple flowers. And I'm trying to find something, can you help me?"

He looked serious now. "Wisteria Myers. The one the prophecy spoke of? Don't worry; I'm magical too. The only reason I've heard is because my son goes to the school in Australia and he's been visiting the Nightmare Realm... I'm sorry, this took a turn. But of course I can help you."

We walked toward the coast together, mostly is silence. Then I finally worked up the courage to ask, "What's your son's name?" I didn't want to intrude, but I wanted to know if he was part of the "powerful magic" group.

"His name is Trent. I think he started going there because his older brother Jerry has graduated college and married into the Nerian court. His wife is Duchess Eva. I don't know if you've never heard of her." When I shook my head, Mahir continued. "Well, ever since we've moved here from Peru, which was after Jerry got married, Trent started getting jealous of his brother. And that's why he goes." He sighed.

I was surprised at how open this guy was. I decided to be open too. "Well, don't feel bad. And don't feel like you're a bad father. Mine doesn't like me as much as he did because I'm a water elemental and not an air one."

"Oh," was all he said. I didn't really blame him. If someone told me that, I probably wouldn't know how to respond either. We walked the rest of the way without talking.

After about ten more minutes of walking in the smoldering heat, I was glad to get to the ocean.

"Well, here we are, Wisteria. Good luck, and may you find what you're looking for." Mahir said goodbye.

"Bye, Mahir! Thanks for helping me!" I said back. As soon as he was gone, I quickly changed into a black bathing suit top with white polka dots and a black swimming skirt.

I stuffed my dress and sneakers back into my magical bag. I looked out at the lapping waves on the shore of Madagascar, took a deep breath, and dove into the water.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty-Five

I found my Elemental Secret very quickly.

Ha, just kidding. In reality, it seemed to take forever.

I was swimming under the water of the Indian Ocean, past all sorts of marine life. It was warm in the water, which didn't surprise me. The thing that surprised me was that I could breathe under water. I didn't have gills or anything, and it defies like every single law of logic, but I could breathe under the water. And water pressure didn't seem to affect me either.

At this point, I was wondering how I was going to find my Element, or how long I had until I somehow ran out of air.

My hair was all over place, so I quickly pulled a hair tie out of my bag and pulled my hair back. Now that the problem was fixed, I kept swimming, looking for an object I didn't know the appearance of. I mean, I was looking for fire, but it kept getting darker and darker. Then again, that should have helped, since it was a burning flame. I swam on and on and on and on. Oh wait, I forgot one and on. Anyway, I eventually felt a tap on my shoulder. I flipped out, whipping around, prepared to blast water at whatever was down here. When I realized it was just a bottlenose dolphin, I relaxed.

Wait.

A dolphin?

"Hello, friend!" He chattered and flapped his fins playfully and happily while I stared, dumbfounded. "What brings you here? You obviously aren't a sea animal!"

I shook my head and blinked numerous times. Surely I was suffering hallucinations from the water pressure that I thought wasn't affecting me...Right?

The dolphin swam circles around me. "Come on! What's wrong? You're as still as an anemone-paralyzed fish!"

I blinked again. "Okay, just to be clear... You're a dolphin."

"Last I checked!" The dolphin flashed it's flippers.

"And you're talking to me. A human. In English."

The dolphin chattered again. "Dolphins can speak Dolphinish, and humans either don't come down here or they don't understand us. You're the first one I've talked to! This is so exciting!"

This cute little dolphin, with his excited and happy energy, reminded me a lot of Diamond. I smiled for a split second, then frowned. I was confused; I didn't even know dolphins had a language, so I had no idea how I could speak it.

I turned back to the dolphin. "What's your name, little guy?"

"Oh! My name is Irwyn. What's yours?" He asked.

"My name is Wisteria, but you can call me Wisty." This dolphin was already feeling like a friend. "I come from America, and I'm a water elemental."

Irwyn nodded. "That's probably why we can talk to each other. Come on; wanna come meet my family?" He gestured for me to get on his back, but I had to say no.

"Sorry, Irwyn. I can't. I'm looking for something. But do you think you could help me find it?" I asked politely. He tilted his head.

"What are you looking for? I can probably help, but if you're looking for some type of tasty fish or squid, I can't promise you that I'm not going to eat it..." He squeaked.

I laughed and shook my head. "I'm looking for my Elemental Secret, and I have no idea what it looks like or where it is, besides that it's here in this ocean near Madagascar. Do you think you could help?" I asked him.

He looked at me. "Elemental Secret? What is that?" I told him the story, starting with the first prophecy dream, and then I told him about the Dark Cave, Eagle, Nightshade, and all of my friends, including Ben. I told him that I had to look for the eternal flame burning under the water.

"Well, I've never seen anything like that, but I haven't been around here very much. I was chasing a squid here, then I saw you." Irwyn turned up his flippers in a shrug.

"Oh, okay."

"I'll still help you! I'll help until I see the sun start to go down, then I'll have to hunt again. Let's go!" He gestured for me to get on his back again, and when I was on, he sped off. Instead of wind, I felt water in my face. It didn't hurt like you would expect given how fast my dolphin friend was going, but it actually felt like a face massage. We stopped about thirty seconds later when we saw something glowing in an orange light from the inside of an underwater cave, and we decided to go in.

"What could go wrong?" Was what I was thinking then.

What could go wrong.

Famous last words.

• • •

As it turned out, my Elemental Secret was not in that stupid cave. It was luminous mushrooms. Somehow they were orange, and part of the cave wasn't under water, so that's probably how they grew. The sun started to go down, turning the cerulean water around me into a dusky orangey yellow color. It was very pretty until I remembered Irwyn had to leave.

I gave my new dolphin friend a hug. "Bye, Irwyn. I hope you find the most delicious and filling fish and squid for your family. You deserve it."

"Thanks, Wisty! Good luck finding your Elemental Secret thingy, and I hope you give that Defeated One a run for his sand dollars! Bye!" He waved his flippers and sped away, leaving me to find my mysterious Elemental Secret on my own.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

I swam on my own for a long time, skirting the deeper parts of Madagascar's coast. I ran into the occasional fish or creepy eel, but nothing really tried to hurt me. Which surprised me, considering Nightshade and my dad knew we were looking for our Elemental Secrets. This was almost too easy. I say almost easy because of two reasons: One, I had no idea where my Secret was. Two, I had no idea what the Secret was. And this was a slight problem, considering we needed the Secrets to win the Final Battle. Excuse me, I meant "stand even a slight chance" in the Final Battle. I sighed. This was exhausting, and it sure was stressful. I found myself turning around whenever I heard something, expecting to see Nightshade, only to find out it was just rustling seaweed.

I took a few rights and some lefts before I felt different somehow, like I was being guided somewhere. I trusted my internal compass and followed my instinct until I was in front of a large cave. It glowed red, orange and yellow all at the same time. The light coming from the cave mouth was like a Northern Lights of warm colors in a dark blue sky. I stood there for about maybe two minutes just staring and wishing I had a waterproof camera of any kind. But nope! Of course I see the most beautiful thing ever and I can't take a video or even a picture.

When the two minutes passed, I took a deep breath and swam into the cave. After the white spots faded because of the bright light, I saw what was in front of me and I blinked in disbelief. Oh, and horror.

There was the hugest most unbelievably scary giant squid in front of me you could ever imagine. Like really, Google 'giant squid'. It was worse than that. It's one large yet beady eye stared at me like I was dinner and it's long tentacles and arms thrashed as if it had an energy burst from too many Monster drinks. Somehow the squid monster glared at me with it's one eye, and without warning, lunged at me.

Now, some strange things have happened to me. I've talked to a dolphin. I'm a princess's friend. I have a magical tiger as a pet. I've led people underwater while we were encased in a bubble. I think it's safe to say my life is far from "normal."

But I never expected to be attacked by a squid in a glowing cave while I searched for a flame under an ocean. I mean, has anyone, magic or not, expected that to happen to them?

I barely shot myself out of the way in time, using jet propulsion to move like the squid did. I slammed into the wall, but whatever, it was better than being torn apart.

Squids are very interesting creatures. They kill their prey first with the stickers on their tentacles, which have little hooks around them. The beak has hooks too, and that sounds like a slightly painful and unappealing way to die to me. That squid could shred me like a brisket if it wanted to. And I was pretty sure it did.

I started throwing disks of water at it, but the giant squid kept dodging them. The thing was surprisingly agile and it's weight didn't seem to slow it down at all.

I spent most of my time swimming frantically away from my predator. Usually I would have looked at my options, but that's kind of hard when you're being pursued by a psycho sea creature that wants to kill you. It didn't seem to wear out either. When I was far enough away, I looked around for a split second. I saw an orange, red and yellow ball in the middle of the cave, hissing and spitting and spewing ash onto the cave floor.

My Elemental Secret!

I figured it was in here, but now that I knew where it was and why this stupid squid was chasing me, I felt better. Well, as much better as I could feel at that point. After I was done thinking, which was like a second or maybe two, the squid tried attacking me again. This time, it succeeded.

I cried out as he wrapped a hooked tentacle around my leg, ripping painfully into my skin. I yelled, hoping someone or something helpful would hear me, but it was all in vain. The squid dug his spiked squid arm into me, and, because I'm just so smart, I tried ripping my leg away. It worked, but it tore gashes all up and down my leg from about my knee to my ankle. I was bleeding into the ocean, like a lot, but the water wasn't turning red. I turned quickly on the squid, my legs still feeling as if it was on fire, and shot huge and powerful jets of water right at it's one eye.

Both of the jets hit my target, which made me feel very accomplished, and the squid shrieked the loudest I've ever heard anything be. Compared to the squid, the school's dining hall at its fullest was a mouse's whisper. Which is saying a LOT.

The squid started lashing out, grabbing at whatever it could. I probably blinded the monster, whether it was permanent or temporary. I quickly swam to my Elemental Secret, and without thinking, I grabbed it. It was hot, but it didn't burn me. I swam back out faster than before, dodging the squid's rogue tentacles. As soon as I was outside the cave's mouth, a tentacle brushed my arm, leaving scratches. I bit my lip hard so I wouldn't scream and alert the squid where I was. Even though it hit me, it was still going, shrieking and slapping the walls.

I started to swim away, but I turned around. I formed a huge ball of water and hurled it at a huge rock hanging at the top of the cave. It cracked and fell, taking the whole cave down with it. I turned away as it collapsed, rocks and dust shooting out behind me. It probably looked really epic, a girl holding fire while a cave exploded behind her.

I should be an action actress. Ha, just kidding.

I started swimming again, but then the burning pain in my limbs stopped me. I was tired anyway, and I wasn't in any danger of drowning, so I took some seaweed, wrapped it around my still-bleeding wounds, found a soft patch of silt, and fell asleep with my Elemental Secret tucked under my arm.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter Thirty-Seven

When I woke up, the sun was shining through the top of the Indian Ocean. My makeshift bandages were soaked through with blood, but it was hard to tell if I was still bleeding or if the ocean water was making the seaweed look more soaked than it actually was. I turned over, checking to see if my Elemental Secret was where I put it.

Oh, crap. Please, no. It wasn't there.

I started frantically looking all over for it, hoping to God something didn't take it. I started digging in the silt until I began to cry, for two reasons: I was stressed about my Secret and my arm and leg were hurting again, worse than before, if possible.

I flopped back down, taking deep breaths. My heart rate was very fast. I rolled over to the other side and then sighed in relief. My Elemental Secret was about ten feet away from me on my right side instead of my left. Maybe when I tucked it under my arm I rolled over and then sprawled out. That seems like the sort of thing I would do. The slight current must have carried it away a bit while I was sleeping.

Ignoring the pain in my limbs, I swam after the glowing fireball and grabbed it. It was still warm despite spending a night underwater out of the squid's cave. I formed a sort of tulip-bulb shape of water around my Elemental Secret, knowing the flame wouldn't die out. As soon as I did that, I used water to propel me upwards until I was balanced on a stationary geyser of salt water above the ocean's surface and looked around. Nothing but sea water as far as I could see, but I knew Madagascar was behind me. Suddenly afraid someone would see me, I let the geyser drop back down and take me with it. I splashed back into the ocean with my Secret in my hands and swam for Neria until I saw a familiar sight.

"Irwyn!" I called, waving my free arm that didn't have the water-encapsulated fire under it. He turned at the sound of my voice and then flipped his fins happily once he saw me.

"Hey, Wisty! Did you ever end up finding your Secret Elemental? Wait, that's not right. Anyway, you know what I mean." Irwyn swam over, talking as best as he could with a fish in his mouth.

I smiled. "Yes, I did end up finding it. It's right here." I took my Elemental Secret out from underneath my arm and held it out so he could see it. He looked confused.

"I thought you said it was like fire."

"Oh, it is. I just used my magic to form a water thing around it so it wouldn't be so hot against my skin." I explained. It wasn't hot to the touch, but my hands were wet, so that might have made it a little better. I was afraid that when I got onto land, the eternal flame would burn my skin.

He still looked a bit confused, but he still nodded. "Oh, okay. Well, I need to take this fish back to my family. Would you come with me this time?"

"Sure, why not?" I followed my dolphin friend across the ocean floor while he led me to where he lived, in a pod of dolphins with about twenty dolphin into total. He introduced me and we had a very nice conversation (dolphins are so nice!) but I eventually had to leave. I told Irwyn and his family that I had to go back to Neria.

"Why don't I take you there? It'll be faster than you swimming and I don't think you can teleport with that." Irwyn offered, pointing a fin at the water-surrounded flames I was holding.

"Sure! Thanks, Irwyn. I really appreciate it." He let me get on his back, hold on to one dorsal fin with my right hand, hold my Elemental Secret with my left, and he sped off.

• • •

We arrived in Neria after about an hour and a half of nonstop swimming. Irwyn was really tired and so I gave him a fish I caught. He thanked me and we said goodbye. I took a deep breath, suddenly very nervous someone would see me come out of the water with seaweed wrapped around my arm and leg, carrying a glowing orange water tulip and a silver bag (which looked like one of those change purse things). Nope, not strange at all! A typical day on the island of Neria. That was weird, even for an island that housed mages.

I gathered up all of my courage and stepped onto shore. My heart dropped into my shoes.

Of course I ended up near Main Street. Yes, Main Street was bear a beach.

What's worse, I was wearing nothing but my black and white polka dotted swim suit and no shoes. It was actually night here, because time was weird in Neria, so everyone was fortunately asleep. I slipped on my Converse sneakers, not bothering to change until I was in my dorm at school. I walked down past all the houses and to was standing in front of the doors.

She smiled, looking extremely tired. Was that sadness and distress in her eyes? "Hi, Wisty." She waved.

"Hi. So, are they letting us in?" I asked, confused. Why weren't they in already?

She nodded again. "Yeah, I just got here."

"Oh. Wait, where's Ben?" I asked Luna. When we split off, Ben had gone with Luna to help find her Elemental Secret.

"He went to find some food. Just about every food place is closed right now, and we were both really hungry. Are you?" She asked.

I nodded. Now that she said that, I was extremely hungry. And tired. All I wanted was to eat, and then go to sleep in a nice warm bed instead of silt.

"Whoa! God, Wisty, what the heck happened to you? You look like you ran through a field of cacti or something! And what is this? Seaweed? It's soaked, and so are you!" Luna exclaimed.

I shushed her. "Quiet down, you're going to wake someone up," I hissed. "And I sort of got into a fight with a giant squid to find this." I held up my glowing Elemental Secret. "I had to use seaweed as a bandage, because I got cut up pretty bad. I think it stopped bleeding, but I'm not sure."

Just then, Ben showed up with McDonalds food. "Hi, Luna. Oh-Wisty, you're here! How was your ocean expedition, was it..." He trailed off once he saw my makeshift Band-Aids. "What happened to you?!"

I sighed. I'll explain once we get inside. Let's meet in my dorm, okay?" We opened the door and walked to my dorm in silence. I was wincing against the pain in my legs. When we finally got upstairs, I ran into the bathroom to change into warm, fuzzy pajamas and properly take care of my wounds. After I came out, Diamond had teleported into the room, looking exhausted and a bit disoriented from her trip to the Spirit World.

My friends sat, eating McDonalds food and talking about their journey. I joined them until everyone else showed up at about two in the morning.

Caleb was coughing very hard, and even before he passed out on the floor, I could tell something was wrong.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter Thirty-Eight

"Oh my God!" Alex exclaimed. He knelt down on the floor and held Caleb's head up so he could breathe easier, or whatever the reason is people do that. Luna and Ben stared in panic. I sat there with my hands over my mouth in shock, while Diamond looked almost like she was going to be sick. Skye got off my bed, which she was sitting on, and tried to help any way she could. She tried getting a fan to cool him off and getting a water bottle so he could drink. That didn't work, in case you were wondering.

Elliott stood up from the pillow he was sitting on and walked over to where Caleb was laying on the ground. His breathing was shallow and quick; sweat stuck to his forehead. Every so often, his foot or arm would twitch. Elliott put a hand on Caleb's chest and frost spread out on his shirt, not enough to freeze the whole shirt, but enough to cool it down.

"He obviously has a fever," Elliott explained. "That should keep his body temperature a bit lower." He then put his ear to where Caleb's heart would be and paused for a few seconds. I got scared when he looked disappointed and I almost started to cry.

"Well." Elliott stood up. "He has volcano sickness."

Luna rolled her hands in a go on motion. "That is...?" She said impatiently.

"When he found the Elemental Secret in one of Hawaii's active volcanoes, he must have disturbed it and made it erupt. This didn't hurt him, being a fire elemental and all, but he probably breathed in a lot of ash and smoke. Only about ten to fifteen people have ever had it." Elliott explained to us.

"Well?" Alex demanded. "Is he gonna be okay?!"

Elliott shook his head. "No, not with-"

"What?! He isn't going to be okay?!" Ben burst out. "He can't even be treated or anything?"

I couldn't take it anymore; I started to cry. Actually, that's kind of an understatement. I started to sob. I was so scared that one of my friends was going to die. I hated this stupid prophecy for making us find these Secrets we didn't know what to do with.

"The prophecy..." I whispered, still crying a little. "One to be taken, one already stolen..."

Luna looked at me with frightened eyes. "Caleb could be the one to be taken. Elliott was the one already stolen..."

"Taken like killed?!" Diamond looked as scared as Luna. Blue had paused from getting water from the sink to look at us with a shocked and sad expression.

Elliott was glaring at us. "Will you guys let me finish?! I was saying, 'No, not without treatment.' He'll probably be fine if he is treated. The problem is, he'll have to go to an actual hospital and not just the nurse's office. The whole school will know if we take him there, and that'll attract attention. We don't want that. Plus, the hospital will have better medical tools and medicines to help him. But, we need a way to get him to the hospital without running into anyone. But we can't waste any time, or it might be too late. Any ideas?"

I thought. "Do you have a sort of 911 system here in Neria?" When all I got was blank stares, I explained, wiping tears off my face. My voice still shook a little when I spoke. "In America, we call 911 whenever there's an emergency, and an ambulance, fire truck, or policeman comes to help very soon after the call."

"Oh, yeah! We have 844, which is the same deal. But they don't come to this school because we have a nurse here. So we'll need to go somewhere else... Somehow. I mean, what time is it?" Alex said, then looked at the clock. "It's 2:45. Okay. Um, we could just take him to the hospital, if anyone knows how to teleport another person.

"Well, there's Lynk. But he's never traveled with an unconscious person before, and I don't think they would appreciate an animal that randomly shows up at almost three in the morning. They don't allow animals out of dormant form there anyway unless they double as therapy animals." Ben shrugged.

Blue shook her head. "I can't. Unless I drag him underground with me, which I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate. That might hurt. A little." She tried for a smile.

"My dad taught Selena how to teleport with another person during Thanksgiving break, before she went missing..." Luna trailed off, and then cleared her throat. "Anyway, he didn't teach me, Selena being his favorite and all, but I watched them. He never caught me, and I learned just as well as Selena. I didn't have as much practice, but I tried it with Ben and nothing bad happened."

Ben nodded for confirmation, just in case we didn't believe Luna. "I'm still here, aren't I?" He joked.

We all smiled, except Caleb, obviously.

"Okay, Luna." Blue looked at her roommate. "You're Caleb's best bet. Just be careful."

Luna stood up and released Snook from her bracelet. Snook gently fastened his teeth around the back part of the neckline of Caleb's shirt, careful not to hurt him. He dragged him as gently as he possibly could across the floor and draped him over Luna's, who was now a wolf, back. She stood up slowly and in a flash of black light, Wolf Luna, Snook and Caleb were gone.

• • •

I had fallen asleep somehow. Among almost all of my friends, and with all my worry about Caleb, I fell asleep. That's the good-ish news.

The bad news? My dad and Nightshade stood in front of me. I was in the Dark Cave, but I was alone. I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes.

"What do you want from me? I know who you are, and we totally kicked your butts in the battle we had. And I think I can safely assume you don't want another one." I gave them my best death stare.

Nightshade rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Wisty. We weren't going all out. We're saving that for-" She stopped when my dad elbowed her. "Anyway, we totally could have taken you down."

"Then why didn't you? If you're SO amazingly powerful, then-"

My dad cut me off. "Be quiet, Wisteria. We just want you to know your flimsy restraints didn't do much for the experienced mages with hundreds of other people with them. And, we aren't giving up. We're still training recruits, and they know all about you and your friends. Don't worry; if the Final Battle comes, and you aren't dead by then, you'll go down easy without TOO much of a painful death."


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter Thirty-Nine

I was still asleep after my dad's awesome pep talk in my other dream. The dream shifted and I was in the Spirit World, near the huge tree that every other tree bent toward. The Spirit Tree, as I liked to call it. The Spirits probably had another more confusing name, because people seem to like to do that, but whatever.

I wasn't sure what to do until a female spoke behind me.

"Hello, are you newly dead?" She said. I turned around, and she raised her eyebrows. "Oh, no, you aren't dead. You're Wisteria, from the Prophecy of the Stars."

I sighed. "Am I famous here?"

"You could say that."

I looked at the spirit woman in front of me. "Do I know you from somewhere? I don't think I do."

She shook her head. "I'm Elliott's great-grandmother. He never met me. Anyway, I'm the one who welcomes the newly dead here. And I think you're mom wants to talk to you."

I blinked. "Um, okay. Where is she? Is she near here? I need to talk to her too." I followed Elliott's great-grandmother through the Spirit World, while getting strange looks from others. I almost said, "What, you've never seen a living person with powers that a prophecy spoke of here?" Then I realized they probably haven't. So I walked in silence, feeling more and more uncomfortable with all of these people staring at me. I HATED being in front of crowds.

"Hi, Wisty!" My mom came up and hugged me, and I wasn't sure how that happened, with her being dead and all...

"Hi, mom. I miss you." I hugged her back. "So, you wanted to talk to me? What about?"

She nodded. "Yes. I wanted to talk to you about your father..." Her eyes clouded with sadness, but she continued. "He wasn't always a bad guy, and-"

"Wake up, Wisteria!" I mean really, you sleep like a rock. Diamond, Blue, help me." I heard Luna's voice from the Spirit World's pale blue sky. My mother sighed.

"I'll talk to you soon, Wisty. Stay safe." She ruffled my hair and kissed my forehead like she used to and my feet left the purplish grass.

• • •

"Finally!" Luna sounded impatient. "It took forever to wake you up. Do you always sleep that heavily?"

I just looked at my friends. Everyone was still in our room. Luna was back from dropping Caleb off at the hospital.

"How did it go?" I sat up groggily. "Did they get him a room? Did you have to fill anything out?"

Luna said, "No, there was no paperwork involved. As for Caleb, he's fine. Actually, that's a stretch. He's still unconscious, as far as I know, but he's in an air-conditioned hospital room."

I nodded. I just really hoped our friend would be okay.

Fortunately, it was Sunday and we didn't have to go to school today. Unfortunately, we had class tomorrow. I wondered who would be teaching Water Magic 101. Certainly not Nightshade, since we knew who it was now, right? I wasn't sure.

"Did you guys get any sleep?" I asked, to break the awkward silence.

Everyone nodded, but Blue spoke up. "Yeah. We fell asleep soon after Luna got back, at about 3:00 in the morning."

"And we woke up at 7:30 or so." Diamond yawned. "I am so tired."

I looked over at the clock. It was 9:03 right now. "Listen, guys. I had another dream."

"About the prophecy?" Ben and Alex asked at the same time. Then they glanced at each other and smiled despite the serious mood.

I smiled a little bit too. "Well, kind of."

Alex sat down and looked at me with a stupid expression on his face. "Do tell."

I proceeded to tell my friends what my dear old dad said about the Final Battle. Luna looked mad when I told them about the part where he said we would go down easy.

"Go down easy." She fumed. "The Defeated One is going to be the one that goes down easy." Ben calmed her down.

Blue looked annoyed at this too. "Who does he think he is, that arrogant, insane minion." She seemed to realize she was talking about my dad and then looked at me. "Sorry, Wisty."

"It's fine."

Elliott looked like he was thinking. "If there's anything I learned about Eagle while I was on the Californian island, it's that he's kind of full of himself. He also likes control. He probably said that just to reassure himself that he knows the outcome of the Final Battle and he can control what happens." He rolled his eyes. "Honestly, he probably hasn't even had a real conversation with the Defeated One that he's so important to."

Ben snorted. "Probably not."

"Okay, but that's not really the point. I mean, I'm not trying to be rude, but shouldn't we be focusing on the point? The Final Battle is going to come. And we are not going to be dead by then. So we should probably figure out what our Elemental Secrets are." Blue said.

Diamond looked thoughtful. "But what about Caleb? He found the raindrop, and he left it right here, next to all of ours. But how is he supposed to figure out his if he's in a hospital?" She gestured to all of our Secrets. They were all lined up in order of which we came back. Luna's glowing, golden piece of sun was first, my eternal flame (still in its water tulip-bulb thing), Diamond's starry piece of night sky, Alex's blue and white sky rock, Elliott's melted coal that was tinged pale blue with frost, Blue's cloud that was somehow stationary and specked with dirt, and Caleb's ashy raindrop that was maintaining its shape.

Luna nodded. "You have a good point. And I'm pretty sure only the founder of the Elemental Secret can actually, you know, find out the whole secret part of it."

I sighed. We had a lot of work ahead of us, and that wasn't even including school.


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter Forty

My alarm clock didn't go off on Monday morning. And that's just perfect, because both Diamond and I use it to get up for school.

To give you a good idea of what my morning looks like, I wake up at seven o'clock. Then I get dressed and stuff like that, and then Diamond and I go to breakfast, which ends at eight o'clock. Class starts at eight fifteen.

I woke up at eight o'clock.

"Oh, no," I sat up straight and swung my legs out from underneath the comforter. "Diamond! You need to get up now! It's almost time for school!" I practically yelled.

Diamond sat up as fast as I did just a few moments earlier, her long hair messy and sleepiness evident in her blue eyes. "What? Didn't the alarm go off?"

I shook my head as I pulled a brush through my wavy hair. It seemed extra knotted today. Of course, today, of all days!

I hated my luck.

As Diamond and I scrambled around trying to get ready in time, there was a knock on the door. I gave up on my hair and threw it up in a ponytail and answered the door.

It was Luna and Blue. "You guys are being so loud!" Luna gave us an annoyed glare. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

I set my purple brush down on a small bookshelf near the door. "What do you mean, why are we in such a hurry?"

"She means that morning classes are cancelled. The water fountain water is all weird. High levels of iron? I can't remember. Anyway, they said they'll have it fixed by lunch." Skye explained.

Diamond groaned. "Sorry, guys! We weren't told. Was it a phone call?" Luna and Blue both nodded.

We checked the phone and it said, 'ONE NEW MESSAGE, AT 7:15.'

"Oh. How did that not wake us up?" Diamond laughed. "We must be really heavy sleepers!"

"Either that or we were really tired," I suggested. Diamond nodded, still smiling.

"Okay. Well, we'll be in our room if you need any more updates on what's happening in our school." Luna gave us a playful look while Blue waved and they both left. I rolled my eyes, though smiling, and shut the door.

• • •

I was trying not to think about Caleb, who was still in the hospital two days later. Try as I might, but I couldn't get the image of him passed out on the floor, his breathing shallow and his face flushed with fever. Every time that came to mind, I started shivering and I felt like I was going to cry all over again. The thing that was tearing me apart inside was that we couldn't visit him yet and we would have no idea if he was doing okay, or if he wasn't...

 _No_ , I scolded myself, shaking my head. _Caleb is going to be okay_. The more I tried to convince myself, and the more I found myself waiting for news, the more I started to drive myself crazy. Not literally, but still.

"Wisty, what's wrong? You look really upset." Diamond sat next to me on my bed, wearing her pale pink pajamas. I was sitting there, deep in my thoughts. I snapped out of my thinking and realized there were tears rolling down my cheeks. I wiped my eyes quickly, slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, it's just... Caleb." I sighed. It was eight o'clock at night and I still had to do my homework. I pulled my binder out from underneath my pillow. Why I put it there, I have no idea. I took the green mechanical pencil from underneath the rings and started my Non-Magical Folk and History of Neria homework.

The Non-Magical Folk homework was easy, as always. The questions weren't multiple choice like they usually were, but I think the hardest one was "Where is the Liberty Bell located and why is it there?"

Diamond helped me with my History of Neria homework. Of all my classes, that was the one I had the most trouble in. Maybe it was because it was really boring or maybe it was because the teacher didn't even try to make it interesting or understandable. Mrs. O'Neil used big words so much of the time that almost no one could understand unless we quickly looked them up. As soon as that was done, it was almost nine. I dropped my binder on the floor, yawning. I thanked Diamond for helping me with my homework, changed into my purple fuzzy pajamas and turned the light off.

• • •

I was standing in a small and dim hospital room, with gray walls and floors tinged with pale orange light from the oil lamp on a nightstand next to a bed with sheets and blankets that were probably white at one point but now they were flecked with brown. Maybe dirt, I thought as I dared to walk closer. No... They were spots of dried blood.

The person sleeping in the bed sat up and started to make a noise-crying? I decided that he was and so I instinctively rubbed his back.

"Shh, it's okay," I told the boy. I guessed from height he was about fourteen. "Everything is going to be fine. Everything is going to be all right."

The boy continued to make that noise. I finally realized; he wasn't sobbing.

His body was shaking with laughter. Insane laughter that got louder and filled the whole room. I noticed that the boy had reddish hair that was messy and dirty. He was tan, I thought, but maybe that was the light coming from the oil lamp that made it look like that. His laughing got louder and louder still, until finally he whipped around to look at me.

It was Caleb, except for not Caleb. His face was flushed like when he passed out, but his eyes were open, but instead of being a golden-amber color, they looked ashen gray and soulless. A wicked smile spread across his face. My heart started beating faster and faster as I backed away from him.

"C-Caleb?"

"No, Wisty... That's where you're wrong. It is most definitely not okay. Not for you." Still smiling insanely, he picked up the oil lamp. He moved his arm back like he was going to throw it, which was horrifyingly bad, because I was really the only target in the room. I drew water from the air to form a small shield behind me as I made a break for the door and turned the black and ornate knob, only to find it was locked and I couldn't get out.

"Caleb, stop... What is wrong with you? You would never do this... Something is wrong..." I begged. It was all I could do to keep the water shield up without breaking down and crying. Still grinning, Not-Exactly-Caleb dropped the lamp and it shattered, spilling oil all over the floor. He lit his hand on fire with his magic and tossed it like a ball from hand to hand, and then made a show of throwing it on the floor.

The whole room caught fire within an minute, if that. The heat had evaporated my water shield and I was feeling light-headed. "Oops," Not-Exactly-Caleb shrugged like it was an accident. "Looks like I would do it."

I bolted up, screaming and crying at the same time.


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter Forty-One

Luna and Blue burst into the room. "What happened?!" They both exclaimed at the same time. I was breathing heavily, tears still rolling down my cheeks, when I glanced behind my friends. Most of the whole hall's lights were on. Was I really that loud?

Diamond was instantly asking what was wrong too, but it took me a minute to recover. By a moment I mean three minutes. As soon as my heart rate dropped, I ran my hands up and down my arms for two reasons: to make sure I wasn't on fire, and also to try to get rid of the clamminess and sweat that clung to my arms. I took yet another deep breath and explained my horrible nightmare to my friends. They looked as horrified as I felt, their eyes wide and hands over their mouths, and I could tell they were wondering why I had this nightmare. Honestly, so was I.

Diamond opened her mouth, probably to give us her theory on why I had that dream, but then we could hear Headmaster Hart's footsteps coming down the hallway.

"Could he hear me?" I whispered to my friends, blinking the tears out of my eyes. "I hope not." They just stared at the doorway.

He walked right in. "Good Heavens, girls, someone called me thinking someone was dying! What is going on?!"

"I had a really bad nightmare," I told him, and then realized how stupid that sounded. "You have no idea." I added, trying to defend myself when he gave me a skeptical look.

"Okay. Well next time don't be so loud. One of the girls said she almost called 844. Good rest of the night." With that, he left.

"Sure, I'll scream a little quieter next time." I glared at the doorway. Blue snorted in laughter at my sarcastic comment.

Diamond looked back at me. "I think you had that nightmare because you're worried about what the volcano sickness is doing to Caleb." She yawned. "Sorry. Anyway, I think you're nervous he's not going to be the same again."

Luna nodded. "That makes sense. I'm worried about him too."

I considered this, throwing the blankets off of me because I could still feel the heat of the flames from my insane dream. "Maybe you're right." I noticed my voice was shaky. "I need some fresh air."

Diamond looked apologetic. "Wisty, we're breaking the curfew being in here as it is. I'm surprised Headmaster Hart didn't make us go back to our rooms. If we went outside, we could get in big trouble."

Blue sighed. "She's right."

"Wait, what time is it?" I glanced over at my alarm clock, and then groaned. "Three o'clock? And we have school later today..."

Luna looked at the clock too, and then back at me. "Don't worry. You'll fall back asleep eventually."

I shook my head. "It's not me I'm worried about. I'm definitely not falling back asleep after...after that." I shivered, remembering every detail as if I were reliving the terror again. "You guys shouldn't be tired just because of my stupid dream."

"It's okay, Wisty." Diamond said. "Blue, Luna, if you guys want to, you can go back to your dorms. Wisty will be fine here with me." She offered. It made me slightly annoyed she talked about me like I wasn't able to take care of myself but I knew she was just trying to take care of all of us.

"No way, we're staying here." Blue said determinedly. "Not even Headmaster Hart is kicking us out of here. One second." She walked across the hall to her and Luna's room and got pillows and blankets. She handed Luna some and they laid out bedding on the floor.

"Guys, you really don't have-"

"No, Wisty, it's fine. Just in case you have the nightmare again, we'll stay here." Luna said, sounding just as confident as Blue did.

"Thanks," I told them, too tired to argue. I had better friends than I deserved.

• • •

I never did fall back asleep, and even if I did, it was never for more than fifteen minutes. I couldn't get the stupid dream out of my head. His smile, his laugh, the empty and evil look in his eyes...

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The alarm actually went off this morning. I rolled over and shut it off. Rubbing my eyes, I put on my slippers and went into the bathroom to shower. When I came out ten minutes later wearing a navy blue ruffly shirt and black leggings, only Blue was awake.

"Should we jump on them?" She asked mischievously.

I laughed. "No, be gentle." I walked over to Diamond and shook her shoulder lightly enough so she would wake up. "Diamond. Time for school," I yawned.

She sat up. "Morning! How did you sleep for the rest of the night?"

"I didn't."

"Oh."

Luna and I had a similar conversation before she and Blue left to go change and get ready for school. Diamond and I talked a bit more while we finished getting ready and then we waited outside in the hallway for Blue and Luna. When they came out, Luna was wearing a white tank top and a black lacy skirt and Blue was wearing a plaid blue shirt and black yoga pants.

"Ready to start our wonderful days of "interesting" knowledge we will never use in our lives?" Blue asked sarcastically.

I laughed. "Sure, why not?"

They were serving bacon and eggs with toast in the dining hall. After about four months of being here, I was still awed by how big the dining hall was; it had at least ninety tables that each sat eight people. All four of us got our food and some orange juice and then sat down, where Ben and Elliott already eating.

"Hey," Luna greeted them.

Diamond said, "Where's Alex?"

Elliott shrugged. "I think he said something about coming a bit later because he couldn't find his contacts or something, and he doesn't want to wear his glasses."

"Alex wears contacts?" I asked, sitting down in between Blue and Diamond. "I didn't know that." Diamond nodded.

In a couple of minutes, we all saw Alex run in with glasses on. "I guess he couldn't find his contacts," Luna commented.

"I guess not." Ben watched the doorway as if he was expecting someone else to come, but then blinked and returned to his breakfast. He looked kind of sad when I realized that he was waiting for Caleb. I turned to stare at his empty seat, wondering when, or if, he would sit there again.


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter Forty-Two

I sat looking at the clock in History of Neria. We were learning about how people from all over the world came together to find a safe place for their magical children to practice their abilities, blah, blah, blah...

I took notes as best I could, but my mind kept wandering. Sometimes to the prophecy, sometimes to our Elemental Secrets, sometimes to Caleb and how he was doing. I decided to visit him in the hospital after school.

The bell finally rang and we all packed up our stuff. "Remember to focus on your academic studies so you can do an exceptional job on your next examination," Mrs. O'Neil told us. I rolled my eyes. That was a fancy way to say "remember to study for your next test." I walked to Monster Class with Lila. We chatted about our favorite and least favorite subjects, and Mrs. Greene, the new Water Magic 101 teacher. I was right; she probably resigned or something after my friends and I found out about her.

We got to Monster Class early, but we sat at different tables, so I doodled a little bit in the margins my notebook paper until class started, but by the time that happened the margins were filled with little clouds and stars.

"Alright, class, we have a lot to get to today, so lets get right to it," said Mr. Ridley, clapping his hands for emphasis. "Take out the Forest Worksheet we started working on yesterday, please." As the class took the paper out of their binders, Mr. Ridley wrote 'Common Forest Confusions' on the board. "Find this section on your paper and write the words "Shadow Wolves" in the first box." He went on to explain that Shadow Wolves were misunderstood creatures, and that many of them looked scary but were nice... Next thing I knew, the whole class was taking notes and I was zoned out. Great. I wrote as fast as I could, listening to Mr. Ridley and copying off Belle's paper, because she sat next to me, the same time.

We spent the whole class talking about Shadow Wolves. A bunch of kids had questions about their teleporting abilities, and another kid asked why this class and Mythical Creatures were separate classes.

"I teach you what to do if you ever come across a dangerous animal, and if they're dangerous or not," Mr. Ridley responded in a tight voice. "Mrs. Clare teaches you about the animals themselves." I had a feeling he hated this question but had been asked about it many times.

The bell rang a few minutes after that, and Mr. Ridley didn't really speak after that one kid, I think it was Maxwell, asked his question. We all got our stuff and I walked down the long hallway, already looking forward to lunch, which was about an hour and fifteen minutes away.

• • •

I was the first one at our table to the dining hall, which never happened. I got my food, chicken patties with peas and french fries, and chocolate milk, and then sat down. I realized it was really loud and quite boring without my friends here.

All of a sudden, Ben stormed in. Like, literally. His dark eyes were blazing with anger and-was that jealousy?- and clouds of darkness followed him every time he took a step. People jumped out of his way as he stomped past, and I don't blame them; he looked scary and like he was capable of hurting someone. I realized I was staring, so I quickly looked down at my food and pretended that I didn't notice anything.

After Ben got his lunch, he walked over with the clouds of smoky-looking darkness trailing behind him. I swear I saw one crackle with lightning. He slammed his tray down and sighed sharply.

"Something wrong?" I tried to sound nonchalant. I was actually terrified he would start yelling at me, even though I was pretty sure I hadn't done anything to offend him. Right?

I really hoped so.

He looked up, giving me a severe look like I had actually done something wrong. I racked my brain. Nope, I couldn't think of anything I'd said or done...

"Nope," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm and anger, "I'm just great. Thanks for asking, although I have no idea why you would think something is wrong with me." I was taken aback. Ben was always calm and rational but now he was absolutely livid. I could almost feel his anger rolling off of him in waves. I blinked, and then he calmed down. But only a little.

"It's Tristan. Someone in my Dark Magic 101 class. He's kind of been flirting with Luna and I don't think she realizes it but I do and it's making me so..." He trailed off, shaking his head in rage. "Anyway, she keeps hanging out with him. She's not going to be at lunch today because they're working on an extra credit project together. Well, they're probably just gonna get their food and leave." Ben angrily returned to his food and ate as everyone else arrived.

"Where's Luna?" Diamond and Blue asked simultaneously.

Ben said gruffly, "Not here."

Elliott looked puzzled. "Well, yeah, she's not here. But you're kind of engaged, don't you know where she is?"

Ben shot him a look that shut everyone up, no more questions asked. We ate in relative silence, and I was relieved when the bell rang, telling us that we had to leave and go to our next class. I threw out my trash and put my tray on the little table next to the trash can, grabbed my school stuff and headed to Water Magic 101. As I walked through the halls, I thought I spotted red-tinted brown hair.

"Caleb?" I turned around, and then realized that Jessica was behind me. In my defense, she had short brownish red hair as well as Caleb. My cheeks growing hot with embarrassment, I walked faster down the hall and quickly turned into the hallway Water Magic 101 was held in. The bell rang just as I sat down at my desk. About three kids came in from the hallway, and Mrs. Greene took attendance.

"Frank?"

"Here!"

"Okay, Kristine?"

"I'm here!" Kristine raised her hand.

Mrs. Greene nodded. "Freya?"

"Here!"

"Kevin?"

"Here."

Mrs. Greene went through the list of people in our class, and I just realized how many people had names that started with F in our class. Frank, Freya, Felicia, Flynn, Francesca...

"Wisteria?"

Mrs. Greene's voice ripped me from my thoughts. "I'm here." Mrs. Greene nodded and continued all the way to Amethyst, and then class started.

"Today, we will be working with the students who have Ice Magic 101 this period to learn how to unfreeze water. They will be learning how to freeze water. Okay, everybody outside, quietly, in a single file line, please." Mrs. Greene told us, and we walked in a single file line, though not exactly quietly, outside, where the kids from Ice Magic 101 appeared to be waiting for us. I looked for Elliott and then realized he was a year older than me.

It was one of those "Duh!" moments.

We were each paired with someone from the other class, and I was paired with Ivory. She was nice, I guess. We didn't really get to talk much because the teachers made us go straight to the lesson.

"Okay, classes," Mr. Joan, the Ice Magic 101 teacher, started, "Just follow these instructions. Young Water mages, draw water from the air and then throw it, lightly, at your Ice mage partner. They will try to freeze it in midair. And then, Ice mages, throw it back, still lightly, to your Water mage partners. They will try to unfreeze the water by making it move again. That's it from me, have fun!" Mr. Joan then started talking to Mrs. Greene.

I shrugged. "Okay, let's do this." Ivory and I walked until we stood about eleven feet apart, and then I pulled some water vapor out of the air and formed it into a thin stream of water. Then I formed that into a little ball. I tossed it lightly of my hand to Ivory. She stuck her arm out, fingers spread, and the water ball froze into an ice ball. She made it hover in the air for a few seconds until she threw it back at me. I closed my eyes for a split second and then focused on the spinning ball of ice headed toward me. I pictured the frozen molecules and willed them to move.

When that didn't work, I put my hand out and spun my wrist, closing my hand into a fist. I then opened my hand to stop the ball of water I suddenly unfroze. Ivory and I went back and forth like this a few more times.

"Five more minutes, students!" Mrs. Greene called, and I turned to her to listen better, but when I turned back, a ball of ice hit me in the nose and burst into snow. I recoiled in surprise and started rubbing my nose to get the feeling back, because it was cold. I know what you're thinking, 'Ice is cold? Whoa!' Well, you can stop being sarcastic because I'll bet you anything you've never been hit in the face with an ice ball. Not a snowball, an ice ball.

"Oh my gosh!" Ivory ran over. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" She sounded worried. I started to laugh. She looked confused but started laughing too. In about ten seconds we were dying.

"You should have seen your face!" Ivory giggled. "It was hilarious!" I was too busy laughing to answer, but my face probably looked a mix of surprised and dazed at the same time. Picturing that, I just laughed harder.

"Something funny, ladies?" Mr. Joan came over, looking annoyed at our laughter, which stopped immediately.

Ivory cleared her throat. "As a matter of fact, something is funny," I looked at her. Was she asking to get in trouble? She continued, "You see, I accidentally hit Wisteria in the face with an ice ball. She isn't hurt, but she did make a funny face." Ivory smiled just thinking about it.

Mr. Joan scowled. "Well, see that it doesn't happen again. Which it won't, because we're leaving. Class is dismissed," he said the last part louder so everyone could hear. Our classes headed back into the school, talking to one another. I sighed. Off to Non-Magical Folk.

Yippee.


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter Forty-Three

"Have a great rest of your day, students!" Mrs. Clare said to us as the bell rang. We all headed back inside, and I felt swept up by a vast sea of people. This was how it was every day at the end of Mythical Creatures, my last and biggest class. Diamond and I eventually found each other and walked back up to our room together.

"Do you want to come and see Caleb with me after we finish our homework? I don't really want to go alone," I asked Diamond.

She nodded. "Sure. But I have a lot of homework, just so you know..."

"Like always?"

Diamond nodded again. "Yep. Like always."

I shrugged. "I have a lot of homework too, for everything except Secrets of Water Magic, History of Neria, and Water Magic 101. But that doesn't really count, because we never get homework for that. That's why it's my favorite class."

Diamond smiled. We climbed the stairs and I unlocked our room door. I released Ember as soon as Diamond and I were both in the room. Ember licked my hand as she turned from a bracelet to a tiger cub. Diamond released Max and they played for a bit while we did our homework.

After about an hour and a half, Diamond and I were both done with our homework. "Ready?" She asked me. I nodded. I shoved my homework binder into a drawer into my wooden nightstand. Pulling on my shoes, I walked out of the dorm room with Diamond. We walked across the hall to invite Luna and Blue to come as well, but they weren't in their room. I figured Blue was hanging out with Gemma, one of her Earth elemental friends. Luna left a note on the door. It said, in Luna's pointy cursive handwriting,

Blue,

I'm working on my extra credit with Tristan. I probably won't be back until about 4. Come and find me in the library if you need me.

-Luna

"Well, I guess neither of them are here, and they're both busy. And we should probably hurry if we want to make it back here by dinner." I said to Diamond. She nodded in agreement and we walked down the stairs. Chatting about our classes, we headed towards the front doors of the school. We stopped in a dimly lit room.

"This is where we found our elements! I remember that day like it was yesterday." Diamond looked around. I had walked through this room a thousand times and each time I was reminded of my first day of school. The day I met my best friends, and the day I found my element of water. One of the best days of my life.

Then, my mind wandered as Diamond told the lady in the scholae elementorum's office where we were going.

 _Your life only went down from there,_ I thought to myself. _Your dad is disappointed in you and he's dead and evil, your mom is dead, you're part of a confusing prophecy and your friend is sick and possibly dying in a hospital..._

I shook my head, clearing it. Magic was the best thing that ever happened to me. It wasn't my magic's fault that all of this stuff happened.

Right?

"Hey, ready to go?" Diamond called, gesturing for me to follow her. She was standing near the school's main entrance, waiting for me. I realized that I was standing in the middle of the room, staring off into space and looking like an idiot. Feeling self-conscious, I quickly walked to the other side of the room to the doors. Diamond and I pushed them open and stepped into the...out. The sun was shining, and it was getting cooler. Even though it was winter, it was sixty degrees today. Living below the equator made for some hot weather. It never snowed on Neria, and I think the record low temperature was forty-seven degrees, which was in 1976.

"The hospital is a few miles from here." I said to Diamond. Are we walking that far?"

She smiled. "No. Haven't you noticed that the hospital is that way," she jabbed her thumb behind her, "and that we're going the opposite way?" I had noticed, but figured this was a shorter way. We were heading towards the outside of the west wing of the school. I realized that I've never been to this part of the school before. She suddenly stopped, making me bump into her back. There was a huge garage thing in front of us. Diamond pressed her hand on the cold steel door, waited about three seconds, and it opened.

"There's a key implanted in my hand, and the door recognizes it." Diamond explained, and then grinned. "Just kidding. Magic." She wiggled her fingers and walked into the school's garage. I followed her, not sure where we were going. As we were walking, Diamond spun here wavy, blonde hair into a bun and secured it with bobby pins.

"Wow. You're really good at doing hair," I told her. The bun looked flawless and she had done it without looking, and she was walking.

She turned around, walking backwards. "Thanks! I've been practicing for about two years now. My aunt lets me do her hair because I don't have any sisters and she doesn't have any daughters. Just Charlie, her son. Anyway," she stopped and turned back around again, "Here's what I was looking for!" She gestured to a red scooter bike thing with a black leather seat, big enough for about two or three people.

Diamond tossed me a red helmet with a horizontal white stripe on it. "Put that on, and sit right here." She patted the seat behind her. She was wearing a golden helmet similar to the one she gave me.

"Okay," I said, putting the helmet on. As soon as I sat down, Diamond and I sped off towards the hospital.


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter Forty-Four

"Diamond," I practically yelled, "Slow down a little!"

"What?" She giggled. "Sorry, I can't hear you!" She went faster despite my plea. At this point, we were probably going to get pulled over because we were going over the speed limit. Okay, maybe I'm over exaggerating a bit, but still.

As we were going down Main Street to the hospital Caleb was staying in, people walked-or flew, in Air elemental people's case-all around us. I knew this was the capital city of Neria, but SO many people lived here.

About three minutes later, Diamond slowed down and pulled into the hospital's parking lot. She put her foot down to stabilize the scooter while she took off her helmet and set it on the seat. I did the same as she kicked the kickstand into place.

"Okay, let's go!" Diamond smiled and we walked into the hospital.

The first color I saw in the hospital was white. The walls were white, and the tile floors were the same color. It smelled faintly like ammonia but more strongly like hand sanitizer.

"Hello," the woman at the desk greeted us. She had dark hair tied into a bun like Diamond's and was wearing a white lab coat. "I'm Jasmine. Can I help you two young ladies?"

I smiled. "Yes, could you tell me where Caleb Díaz's room is? We're visitors."

The woman pulled a binder with a bunch of papers in it from underneath the desk and flicked her finger. Wispy air magic caused the pages to flip to a certain spot and then stop while Jasmine got a pen from a nearby shelf.

"Caleb Díaz...Ah, yes, volcano sickness. He's in Room D-23 on the fourth floor. He may or may not be awake, and one person at a time, please. Also, one more thing; what are your names?" Jasmine asked us, pen at the ready.

"I'm Diamond Hopewell, and this is Wisteria Myers. We're fourteen years old." Diamond told her, and Jasmine scrawled our names on the piece of paper.

She put her pen down. "Okay, girls, head on up. You can take the stairs, which are down the hallway to the left and just past the supply closet, or the elevator, which is down the same hall but closest to where we are right now. See you later!" She waved. We waved back and started walking down the hallway Jasmine told us to go down.

"Let's race! Elevator versus stairs. I'll take the elevator," Diamond said.

I smiled. "You're on. But you have to wait until I get down there. I'll, um, wave when I get there." Diamond nodded and I bolted down the hallway, dodging doctors as I ran. When I almost ran into one, I decided to walk, mostly because I could imagine the people giving me looks. Once I was at the doorway that led to the staircase, I waved my entire arm so Diamond could see me, and then raced up the stairs.

There were four long flights, one for each floor.

Ugh, I thought to myself. Why did I agree to do this again? Diamond's going to beat me for sure. And then it dawned on me: magic.

I drew all the water I could out of the air, leaving some so it wouldn't be too dry, and made a little orb of water around my feet. The water rolled up the stairs and it felt like I was wearing those gel Dr. Scholls things. When I got up to the top, I realized that I could not evaporate the water.

Oops.

I made a puddle over in a corner where no one would slip on it, and then opened up the door that led into the hallway of the fourth floor. Running because there weren't as many doctors on this floor, I made my way to the elevator to see if Diamond had beat me.

Putting on a smug smile, I stood in front of the elevator with my arms crossed. About five seconds later, I heard a ding and the doors opened. Diamond and two other people came out of the elevator. Diamond looked at me and rolled her eyes in fake annoyance. We walked down the hall past all of the hospital rooms until we got to D-23.

"Do you want to go first?" Diamond asked me.

"Sure, thanks." I turned the knob of the door and walked in, somewhat cautiously. Closing the door behind me, I walked toward the other side of the room to where the bed with crisp white blankets was. "Caleb?" I called quietly.

The blankets moved. "Is it time for my medicine already?" Caleb sat up and rubbed his eyes. "I didn't think it was seven yet..." He blinked slowly, not seeming to realize it was me. I was glad he was okay, but I was hoping to at least have a simple conversation. He then closed his eyes and fell back down onto his pillow.

"Um, Caleb?" I asked, panic building up inside me like a growing flame. Was he joking around or delirious? I tapped his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

He rolled over, one eye partially closed. "Banana bread...?"

This time, I was sure something was wrong. I quickly walked over to the door. "Diamond, please go find the closest doctor or nurse, I don't care, very quickly. He's delirious and I don't know what to do. And being a fire elemental and all..." My voice trailed off. Diamond nodded and sped off down the hall.

I propped the door open with a chunk of wood and sat in a nearby chair, unable to keep still. I finally got up and put my hand on Caleb's forehead. He was burning up. I pulled some water out of the air again and put it on his forehead in attempt to cool him down a little. I wished Elliott were here because of his ice powers or Alex because he could summon cold wind, but all I could do was press water on his forehead until Diamond came back.

After two minutes that seemed to last hours, Diamond and a nurse came through the door. We got told to leave the room, so we just left the hospital altogether.

• • •

"Yeah, he was really out of it," Diamond explained at the dinner table that night. Everyone was there, even Luna. Since Caleb wasn't here, Tristan sat with us. That made Ben kind of angry.

Ben looked at Tristan. "You know, once Caleb comes back, he'll be sitting here." He narrowed his eyes in challenge. Tristan just nodded while Luna sent Ben a fierce glare that I would hate to be on the receiving end of.

"Well, is he okay now?" Alex asked, worried. "He is, right?"

I looked down. "Well, I don't actually know..."

"So, Tristan, where are you from? Do you have any hobbies?" Ben asked sourly. I was beginning to think he wasn't listening to our conversation about Caleb. Only Blue and Alex were, it seemed.

Tristan turned to face them. "I'm from Italy, and I starting learning English when I was three. I had it good enough at seven. I moved here just last year. As for hobbies, I volunteer at the pet shelter near here, and I run cross country." He explained. Ben threw his hands in the air. Luna shot him another glare.

"Can I talk to you? Over there, please, Ben?" Luna asked through gritted teeth.

We all looked around with widened eyes. "Ben's in trouble," Blue said.

Despite the fact that Luna and Ben weren't at the table anymore, we could still hear their conversation.

"What is your problem?" Luna demanded. "We're engaged. I don't like him like that. Even if I did, it couldn't happen. Why are you so worried?"

"I'm not worried. What are you talking about? You're just always working on that stupid project. You don't even spend time with any of your other friends anymore!" Ben retorted.

Luna just seemed to get angrier. "Whatever, Ben! As a matter of fact, I'm going to work on that "stupid project" right now. Happy?!" As Luna stormed over, we all pretended we were just eating our dinner innocently.

Luna gestured for Tristan to follow her in a quick, angry gesture and they both left the dining hall. Ben stormed out a different exit.

"Well today was eventful," Blue said to us.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter Forty-Five

The nightmare came again. It started the exact same way, with me standing in a hospital room. The oil lamp cast a fiery orange glow on the walls, and the bed with the bloodstained sheets. Not-Exactly-Caleb laid in the bed, sleeping. All that was different this time was that I knew I had to escape before Caleb woke up. I remembered Caleb telling me that he always woke up with the sun, whether it was cloudy or not, no matter summer or winter. I glanced out the old, dirty window and saw that the sun had not yet risen, but I could kind of see pale sunlight starting to come into the room. I only had about three to five minutes to get away.

Figuring this was plenty of time, I quietly walked over to the door and turned the old, ornate gray knob. It wasn't locked this time! I swung the door open and started walking into the next room when:

"Wisty? Where are you going?" I stopped in my tracks. That was Caleb's voice, but it was coming from two different places: in front of me and behind me. I looked back, and then my heart suddenly started beating faster. I slammed the door behind me. Closing my eyes, I leaned against the now closed door and tried to steady my breathing rate. As soon as I was breathing regularly again, I opened my eyes.

"Hi, Wisty." Wait. Caleb?

I had succeeded into walking through the door into the same room, with the same oil lamp and bed and everything.

"Where are you going?" He repeated in some type of weird, distorted voice. "You'll miss the fun we're going to have!" I decided this was Not-Exactly-Caleb.

Needless to say, I started breathing quickly again, but I tried to keep my cool. "Oh, darn, what a shame," I said, pretending to look at a watch. "I have to go, and...eat...bread." Of course I would come up with something incredibly real-sounding like that.

"Your "bread" can wait. This will be a lot more fun than eating bread." Not-Exactly-Caleb's gray eyes glinted coldly, and he tilted his head. "Well...for me, anyway."

I shook my head. "Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll be going now." I started to walk past him towards the door. As soon as my back was to him, a fireball shot past my head, singing parts of my brown hair black. I pulled water out of the air, ready to attack, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Caleb's evil nightmare twin started laughed manically again as he had in the first nightmare. My heart started beating faster still; my breathing sped up to about a million miles an hour. He lit his hands up and juggled the fire like a professional clown, if there "professional" and "clown" can go in the same sentence, and then walked over to the bedside table.

Where the oil lamp was.

After Evil Twin Caleb kicked the nightstand with a massive amount of force, somehow not hurting himself in the process, the oil lamp fell, but didn't break. So he kicked that too. It finally shattered, which made my heart drop into my shoes and a cold sweat break out on my forehead. It spilled onto the floor, staining the floorboards the ugly brownish black color of oil. The scent of it was so strong that I gagged.

To my surprise, Evil Twin Caleb (he can be called ETC now) extinguished the flames, and his eyes turned from gray to actual Caleb's amber colored eyes. "W-Wisty? I...Where are we?" I couldn't do anything but blink in shock at his sudden recovery. But the moment was short-lived; in about five seconds the dead gray color took over Caleb's real eye color and ETC was back.

Joy.

His insanely creepy smile returned. He straightened up and lit his hand on fire again. "Oh look," he said, "Flammable oil. It would be a shame to let it go to waste..."

"No it wouldn't. Trust me, it's really already wasted." I offered, but to no appeal. ETC just gave me a sarcastic nice try look and everything suddenly went dark. Except for the flame ETC was still holding.

In sheer desperation, I threw my water down at the oil. Which didn't help, in case you were wondering.

"Well that was stupid." ETC sounded almost bored and annoyed with my ingenious decision.

I shot a glare at him despite my fear. "Shut up, will you? People make mistakes." Even though he probably couldn't see it, I gave him one of my signature eye rolls I usually saved for when Kevin messed up in class. Which was a lot.

The flame grew bigger, nearly touching the ceiling. My eyes widened. "You know," ETC told me, "this really is fun." I could just picture his menacing smile and cold gray eyes, savoring this moment of heat and extreme fear, which was taking me over almost as much as the smoke from the flame. Then came the moment I had been waiting for: he dropped the flame on the oil.

WHOOSH!

The small wooden hospital room went up in flames. The air was getting dry, the smoke got thicker and it got harder and harder to breathe. My skin boiled and my hair caught fire. I clawed at my throat in desperation. "Air..." I gasped. ETC started laughing, laughing, like a maniac...

And then he was gone.

• • •

I bolted upright, holding back another scream. Fire was becoming a serious fear of mine.

My was throat still dry, so I got up for a drink of water. Deciding that a glass was too boring, I quietly moved some water out of the mouth of the faucet and formed a small bubble out of it. Making it float, I grabbed it out of the air with my mouth. Swallowing it made my throat feel much better.

I sat back down on my bed and looked at the alarm clock. It was 3:56 in the morning. I had about three more hours to sleep, so I got under the blankets and snuggled into my pillow, falling asleep way quicker than I thought I would.

• • •

"Wake up, Wisty! Another great day!" Diamond chirped, throwing open the gray curtains. As sunlight streamed through the window, I closed my eyes and groaned, rolling over.

"C'mon, it's 7:12! We're running late!" Diamond shook me lightly. I rolled back over and sat up.

"Fine, but only because it's the Friday before New Year's." I swung my legs over and walked over to the dresser, where I rummaged through the clothes until I found a pair lavender jeans and a white t-shirt and changed out of my pajamas into them. I slipped on my black no-show socks and black flats as I brushed my hair. I stuck a purple headband in my hair and brushed my teeth. A knock on our door came as I was getting my school stuff.

"I'll get it!" I called to Diamond, who was doing her hair in two French braids. I opened the door to find Blue and Luna, who were already dressed and everything.

"You guys ready?" Blue asked.

I replied, "Well, almost. I'm close to ready, except I need my bracelet." I walked over to the nightstand, got my Ember bracelet, and slipped it on my wrist.

"Okay, I'm ready! Let's go down to breakfast. I wonder what they're having? Maybe cereal, or bagels, or waffles..." Diamond stepped out of the bathroom into the room where Luna and Blue were waiting.

"Yeah, guys, there's something I need to tell you..." I said. I recalled my vivid nightmare to my friends as we walked down to the dining hall.


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter Forty-Six

Luna shook her head, her black hair swinging back and forth. "You had that dream again? Why?"

I turned my palms up and shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. I honestly have no idea, but I really think I should-" I was cut off by an announcement.

"Exciting news, students! We have new student arriving today. His name is Jay Parrish, and he has the elements of darkness. Please treat him as well as you would treat any other student. Thank you, and have a great day." Headmaster Hart's voice boomed overhead due to a magical spell; this school didn't have any speakers.

"Hmm. People don't usually move here in the middle of the year, or so I've heard," Diamond looked thoughtful. "Alex said that no one moved here last year."

"Really? In LA, people moved to the school all the time. One year, we had two boys and a girl move to our school, and that was just in my grade." Blue said as we walked down the stairs.

Diamond looked surprised. "That's weird."

We walked the rest of the way to the dining hall, chatting about moving and what we would like or dislike about it, and that none of us intended to go to another magic school. When we got down to the dining hall, only three people were sitting at the table: Ben and Tristan, who were arguing, and...some other boy. He sat at the end of the rectangular table with a chair pulled up.

"Ugh, what did Ben say now?" Luna grumbled and stormed off to join in the argument. Diamond, Blue and I looked at each other and then went to get our breakfast of pancakes and fruit salad.

As soon as Ben and Luna saw us coming to the table, they stopped bickering and shot each other one last flare before settling down. "Hey, guys!" Ben flashed us a smile to try to cover up that he was just in an angry argument. "This is Jay, he just moved here from the kingdom I used to live in," a brief sadness passed over his face, "called Delhia. We were best friends until I came here. His parents were part of the Delhian court."

Diamond was the first one to introduce herself. "Hi, Jay! I'm Diamond. I'm a light elemental, and I have a pet phoenix named Max. Do you have a pet?"

Jay smiled a bit. "Hi, Diamond. Yes, I have a spectacled bear. His name is Achilles. See, the wristband is right here." He held out his arm and on it was a leather wristband that was dark brown and tan.

"Hi, Jay. It's nice to meet you. I'm Wisteria, but you can call me Wisty. I'm a water elemental, and I have a pet tigress named Ember." We shook hands and then I turned to Blue.

"Hello, I'm Blue. I'm an earth elemental, and I have a pet lioness named Terra." Blue introduced herself and then she and Jay shook hands.

"It's nice to meet you guys. I was afraid I wasn't going to find friends this quick," Jay smiled.

Ben turned to look at his friend. "And you already know Luna. And Tristan... Anyway, why did you move here? Your parents are part of the court. I'm here because of an arranged marriage, but you probably aren't. I mean, you might be, but..."

Jay ignored his question, but was that grief in his eyes? "Luna, what animal did you say you had again?"

"Oh, a Snookaloo named Snook. They only live here in Neria." Luna explained.

Jay nodded. "Oh, yeah. We have Cheli in Delhia, they're called Chelus if you're only talking about one. They're reddish orange leopard looking animals, but they have pointy ears and spots in a line from their nose to the tip of their tail." As Jay said this, Alex came and sat down.

"They sound really cute!" Diamond said. Jay nodded in agreement.

"They are! I remember my nanny, Jenna, had one. His name was Devlin, if I remember correctly. I saw him last about seven years ago." Ben told us.

"That's nice," Tristan yawned like he was bored from where he was sitting. In Caleb's spot.

Alex looked at him. "Dude, be respectful."

Ben just shot Tristan a look like, 'We don't want you to be here, so shut up.' Tristan shot Ben a glare with his pale blue eyes.

"So, Tristan," Blue said quickly, "Tell us more about Italy. I've never been to Europe, what's it like there?"

Tristan turned to look at Blue. "Well, I lived in Venice before I came here, and we travel on canals using gondola. I mean, gondolas. Sorry, I am still learning to speak English well. Anyway, we travel in canals much of the time, and then there's Carnival, a huge festival every year. The food is good too. I love gelato. I have also been to Rome once. It's cool there. You should go sometime. You would probably like it. And, where is Elliott?"

"Elliott said he was going to skip breakfast to sleep in," Ben answered.

"Sounds interesting, Tristan, but what's gelato? Is it like some time of hair gel company? Your hair doesn't look that spiky." Alex joked. At least I think he was joking.

Tristan laughed. "No. It is like Italian ice cream."

"Oh." Alex smiled. "I knew that."

Luna smirked at him. "Suuure you did."

Everyone laughed, including both Ben and Tristan. Tristan then got up to throw out his trash because the bell was about to ring, and I remembered that that's where Caleb should have been. My thoughts wandered.

Was Caleb doing well in the hospital? I should probably visit him again. Wait, what if he wasn't okay? What if he was intensive care or something? Oh, my gosh...

What if he was worse than not okay? What if he was dying or dead?

I shook my head to clear my thoughts, which probably looked weird. Just randomly shaking my head in the middle of the table. If I could, I would smack this stupid volcano sickness right upside the head. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a physical being, so that would be kind of hard...

The bell rang, signaling that it was time for school to start. I sighed, picked up my stuff, and trudged to History of Neria.

• • •

"Have a good three day weekend, class," Mr. Smiths called to us. He couldn't even sound excited about New Year's, where we had Monday off too. The guy never got excited about anything.

I walked down the hallway to my next class, History of Water Magic. Mrs. Jones was a nice teacher; maybe she would let us do something fun before New Year's Weekend.

My hopes came true.

"Hi, Wisteria! You're early today. Could you help me hand out this popcorn? Just put one of these little paper bucket thingies on everyone's desk and I'll come around and fill them up." Mrs. Jones asked me politely.

I nodded. "Sure, no problem!"

"Thank you. I really appreciate it!"

The rest of the students filed in the room, and by the time the bell rang, everyone had popcorn and we had started the movie, Night at the Museum.

I sat eating my popcorn (which Mrs. Jones has given me extra of for helping) and watching the movie, thinking about my New Year's resolution.


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter Forty-Seven

The bell rang and everyone started packing up their stuff to go to Mythical Creatures. Fortunately, this was our last class before New Year's Weekend. Unfortunately, it had both the first and second year students in it at the same time, so trying not to fall or get pushed around in the hallway was next to impossible. It was like when everyone walked to lunch.

I managed to spot Blue through the turmoil. "Hey, Blue!" When I saw her turn halfway around, looking for the source of the voice, I yelled, "Over here!" She saw me and smiled, then stopped and flattened herself against the wall so people could get through. I made my way over, tripping twice, and then finally stopped next to her.

"Hey," she said loudly over the noise of the crowd, "'Sup?"

I yelled back, "Oh, not much. Just, you know, getting trampled trying to walk to class." Blue smiled and nodded in agreement. We found a space in the flood of people and started walking along with everyone else. We made it about ten feet before this happened:

"Could you guys walk any slower?" I heard a jeering voice behind us. We turned halfway to see a girl with curly dark brown hair that went to about her waist and electric blue eyes glaring at us.

"Who are you?" Blue said, while trying to walk to class.

She rolled her eyes. "Hasn't Luna talked about me? Whatever. I'm Cahira, part of the Nerian court. My name means 'female warrior.' You are?"

"I'm Skye, and this is Wisteria. We're from America." Blue introduced us.

"Which part?"

Blue blinked. "Oh! I'm from LA, and Wisty's-"

"Ugh, LA? Neria is so much better."

I could tell Blue was getting mad, so I grabbed her arm. "C'mon we have to get to class." I started walking faster, but Cahira pushed me.

Square in the back.

"Ow! Back...!" I gasped. Of course she pushed me exactly where the fire hit me, and even though I had recovered, it still really hurt whenever someone accidentally bumped into me or something. But she had pushed me intentionally. I almost fell but Blue caught me, and I threw Cahira a look. She played innocent and shrugged as we walked outside.

"Who does she think she is?" Blue grumbled. "I mean, what a brat."

I had to agree. I didn't know what her problem was, or why she was so rude. I mean, yeah, people do walk slow and I've considered telling them to go faster, but she disrespected Blue and pushed me on my back injury.

"Hey, guys!" Diamond called to us from about thirteen feet to the left. "What's up?"

Blue was obviously still mad. "Oh, you know. Just your typical being shoved around by a bratty Nerian court duchess or whatever."

Luna came up behind us with Snook, Ben and Lynk. "Oh, Cahira? Yeah, I hate her. She's a favorite of my dad's, though. Of course." She rolled her red eyes. I wondered, not for the first time, how red eyes was genetically possible, but we lived on a magical island. Wasn't that reason enough?

"Hey, guys." Alex arrived with Elliott and Jay, who had his pet spectacled bear released. Achilles was playing with Elliott's polar bear, Everest.

"Welcome to Mythical Creatures, class!" Mrs. Clare greeted us cheerfully. "Today is another free day. Have fun, and don't be too loud! Classes are still going on!"

"Who is she kidding?" I said to Luna, who smiled and nodded. After a while, the courtyard was in chaos, with animals and people being extremely loud. After what seemed like a minute, we had to leave and go back to our dorms. It was a free period, but even if you didn't intend to leave the courtyard where Mythical Creatures took place, you would probably either be knocked over or swept up in the ocean of people. I quickly put Ember in her dormant form, an ebony-colored bracelet, and tried to keep my footing as I stumbled through the crowded halls. I realized neither Blue, Luna, Diamond, Alex, Elliott, Ben or Jay were near me.

I finally got to my dorm room, and Diamond was already there, playing with Max. I sat down on my bed, tired and ready for sleep. I laid down, and as soon as I did, I drifted off.

• • •

"Wisteria." I turned around to see my old friend, Eagle, my dad. Wait. I was back in the Nightmare Realm?

"Dad." I gave him a look.

I heard other kids behind me whisper. "Did she just say 'Dad'? Eagle has a daughter?" I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment. Great, now everyone knew.

"Yes. Would anyone like to fight my daughter?" Eagle swept his cloaked arm out to the crowd watching us.

Someone stepped out. "I will." It was some girl I didn't know.

"Oh, wonderful! Jackie the Ice elemental versus Wisteria the water elemental." He sounded disgusted when he said 'water elemental'.

"No, I don't want to fight. Leave me alone." I spat at my father. I somehow woke myself up, and it was about seven thirty. I sat up quickly. Diamond was still awake, looking at me quizzically.

I sighed. "I'll explain."


	48. Chapter 48

"You refused to fight? Like, that's good, but what if you end up going back? Won't he..." Diamond trailed off.

I shrugged, though she was right and it worried me. "All I know is, I'm not going back and fighting people anymore. They didn't do anything to deserve it. Well, they kind of did, but I'm still not going to hurt them."

Diamond nodded, and then yawned. "I know it's only seven forty, but I'm tired. I like school, but weekend breaks are good too." I smiled and nodded, even though I was wide awake. Diamond quickly fell asleep, but I laid there, not able to go back to sleep. I decided to take out the notebook my dad gave me all those years ago. I turned the "lamp" on to the setting with the littlest possible light coming from it so I could still see. I say "lamp" because it actually just holds pure light in it and has knobs to make the light brighter or dimmer.

Wisteria, I can't wait until you come here to live with me. You're going to love Neria, and you're going to love the school. You might even be friends with the princess! Well, probably not. I chuckled at the irony of this sentence. Many people live in the Capital City, like me. I hope you like it here. You'll even get your own animal! At this, I smiled and fiddled with my Ember bracelet. When I first read this, I thought he meant he would buy me a dog or something, which I had always wanted but couldn't have since our apartment in New York didn't allow them. I realized I was wrong reading this again. Alright, well, it's getting late. I'll continue writing tomorrow.

I sighed and closed the book. Turning over, I checked the time. It was eight-fifteen. I decided to try to go to sleep.

• • •

It was Saturday, New Year's Eve. Everyone on the floor of our dorm was decorating the halls, especially Diamond and Luna. They hung shiny streamers of all colors on the walls and made signs that lit up (courtesy of all the Light elementals) and said 'Happy New Year!' Blue and I stood against the wall, drinking a soda out of purple and black cups that tasted like chocolate ice cream and changed colors. I forgot what it was called, but it was only on sale for a limited time because of New Year's.

After about an hour, the whole hall was decorated with glitter and streamers of all colors and elements intertwined; light and darkness, water and fire, ice and fire, and air and earth.

We were all tired and hungry, so we decided to go down to get lunch. We ended up splitting into our regular lunch groups. Alex, Jay, Elliott and Ben were already there eating their lunch of hamburgers and fries with soda. We all took our seats and dug in, because none of us girls had eaten breakfast that morning and it was around noon.

"Hey, guys. What were you doing?" Jay asked us. "I noticed you weren't at breakfast."

Blue took a bite of her hamburger, swallowed, and set it down on her plate. "We were decorating for New Year's. Well, they were," she gestured to Diamond and Luna. "Wisty and I didn't really help that much..."

I laughed. "Nope, we're lazy."

Just then, Tristan sat down next to Alex and across from Luna where Caleb usually sat. "Hi. I was just putting the finishing touches on the project."

"This project is taking a long time." Ben said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Luna looked at him, glaring daggers. "It involves lots of work, Ben." Ben made a face at her and they turned around, Ben talking to Jay and Luna talking to Tristan. Both of them had a face flushed with anger.

"Wow," Blue whispered to me. I nodded.

Diamond tried to start conversation. "So...anyone had luck with their Elemental Secrets?"

Tristan look perplexed. "Elemental Secrets?"

Luna made a nervous face and passed her hand in front of her throat quickly in a stop gesture.

"Well?" Tristan asked.

I looked at my friends. "Um, inside joke. Only Luna, Diamond, Skye and I know about it." I flashed Alex a warning look when he opened his mouth to say something, because he didn't get what we were trying to keep secret. He looked confused for a split second then it dawned on him.

"Oh," was all Tristan said. I breathed a sigh of relief, and I wasn't the only one.

I After a little while, everyone was done with their lunches and we went back to our dorms.

Once we got there, I told Diamond I was going to see how Caleb was doing. "Wanna come?" I asked her.

"Sorry, I can't. Max has a V-E-T appointment scheduled." Diamond told me. She had to spell the word vet out because whenever Max heard that word he would fly in circles and screech loudly until he was given loads of treats.

"Okay. Well, have fun."

Diamond snorted. "Yeah, sure." I smiled, and told her goodbye.

I started walking down the hall when I ran into a girl who lived in a dorm a couple rooms down.

"Ouch!" She said.

I helped her up, because she fell. "I am so sorry. Are you okay?" She nodded and we both made our way down the hall, me towards the stairs and her towards the dorm she lived in.

As soon as I walked out of the door after checking out of the school with the secretary Mrs. Clarke, I realized I didn't have any way to get to the hospital. And then I realized I could teleport. Maybe it wouldn't take as long to teleport a few miles as it would from America to Africa.

I willed myself to turn into mist and imagined the hospital parking lot. My vision blurred like I opened my eyes under water and I went weightless. About twenty seconds later, I materialized in the part of the hospital parking lot designated for teleporting people.

Walking in, I saw that a clerk named Carolina was working at the desk.

"Who are you here to see?" She asked me.

"Caleb Díaz. In Room, uh...D-23, I believe?" I asked for clarification. The woman nodded and looked up at me.

"Yes, he was in that room," she told me. My heart started to beat faster. Did she just say 'was'? Oh my God, Caleb died?!

She seemed to realize her mistake. "Oh, no! I didn't mean that! He was moved to another room, because his fever spiked and we needed to keep a better eye on him. He hasn't been getting better, and we can't allow visitors right now. I'm sorry."

"Oh, it's okay. Have a nice day," I told her, hiding my disappointment and extreme worry.

Hey, readers! This is the last chapter I'm putting on FamFiction. From now on, I'll be updating on FictionPress and Wattpad. Check it out there if you want to keep reading!


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